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THEOLOGICAL    TRANSLATION    LIBRARY 


VOL.    XXX 
EUCKEN'S   THE    TRUTH    OK    RKLIGION 


"Ebcolooical  {Translation  Xibraq? 


NEW    SERIES 

Vol.  XXX.— THE  TRUTH  OF  RELIGION.  By  Dr  Rudolf 
Eucken,  Senior  Professor  of  Philosophy  in  the  University  of 
Jena. 

\\N.  XXVIII.  and  XXIX.— THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  IN 
THE  LIGHT  OF  THE  ANCIENT  EAST.  ISy  Alfred 
Jbrbmias,  Pastor  of  the  Lutherkirche,  and  Lecturer  at  the 
University  of  Leipzig.  Two  vols.,  with  numerous  illustrations 
and  maps.     Vols,  not  sold  separately. 

Vols.  XXVII.,  XXVI.  and  XXII.  —  PRIMITIVE  CHRIS- 
TIANITY:  Its  Writings  and  Teachings  in  their  Historical 
Connections.  By  Otto  Pfi.KIDERER,  Professor  of  Practical 
Theology  in  the  University  of  Berlin.     Vols,  i,  2  and  3. 

Vol.  XXV.— ETHICS  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE.  By 
Dr  Theodor  von  Haeking,  Professor  of  New  Testament 
Dogmatics  and  Ethics  at  Tubingen. 

Vol.  XXIV.— HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH.  By  Hans 
von  Schubekt,  Professor  of  Church  History  at  Kiel. 

Vol. XXIII.— THE  INTRODUCTION  TO  THECANONICAL 
BOOKS  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT.  By  Cari.Cornill, 
Professor  of  Old  Testament  Theology  at  the  University  of 
Breslau. 

Vol.  XXL— ST  PAUL:  The  Man  and  His  Work.  By  Prof.  H. 
Weinel,  of  the  University  of  Jena. 

Vols.  XIX.  and  XX— THE  MISSION  AND  EXPANSION 
OF  CHRISTIANITY  IN  THE  FIRST  THREE  CEN- 
TURIES. By  Adolf  Harnack,  Berlin.  Second,  revised 
and  much  enlarged  edition.     Vols,  not  sold  separately. 

Vol.  XVIII—  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IN  THE  PRIMITIVE 
CHURCH.  By  Ernst  von  Dobschutz,  D.D.,  Professor  of 
New  Testament  Theology  in  the  University  of  Strassburg. 

Vol. XVI.— THE  RELIGIONS  OF  AUTHORITY  AND  THE 
RELIGION  OF  THE  SPIRIT.  By  the  late  Auguste 
Sabatier. 

Vols.  XV.  and  XVII.— THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRIS- 
TIANITY. By  Paul  Werni.e,  Professor  Extraordinary  of 
Modern  Church  History  at  the  University  of  Basel.  Vol.  1. 
The  Rise  of  the  Religion.  Vol.  II.  The  Development  of  the 
Church. 

Vol.  XIII. —AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  TEXTUAL 
CRITICISM  OF  THE  GREEK  NEW  TESTAMENT. 
By  Professor  Eberhard  Nestle,  of  Maulbronn. 

Vols.  II.,  VII.,  VIII.,  IX.,  X.,  XL,  XII.— A  HISTORY  OF 
DOGMA.  By  Adolf  Harnack,  Berlin.  Translated  from  the 
Third  German  Edition.  Edited  by  the  late  Rev.  Prof.  A.  B. 
Bruce,  D.l).    7  vols. 

Vol.  IV.— THE  COMMUNION  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  WITH 
GOD:  A  Discussion  in  Agreement  with  the  View  of  Luther. 
By  W.  Herrmann,  Dr.  Theol.,  Professor  of  Dogmatic  Theology 
in  the  University  of  Marburg. 

Vols.  III.  and  VI. -A  HISTORY  OF  THE  HEBREWS.  By 
R.  Kittel,  Ordinary  Professor  of  Theology  in  the  University 
of  Breslau. 

Vols.  I.  and  V.— THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE.  By  Prof.  Carl  von 
WeiZSACKER.     Translated  by  James  Millar,  B.D.     2  vols. 

Descriptive  Prospectus  on  Application. 


THE   TRUTH   OF 
RELIGION 


RUDOLF  EUCKEN 

AWARDED    NOBEL    PRIZE    1908 
SENIOR   PROFESSOR   OK   PHILOSOPHY    IN   THE   UNIVERSITY   OK   JENA 


TRANSLATED   LV 

W.   TUDOR  JONES,  Ph.D.  (Jena) 


NEW   YORK:    G.    P.    PUTNAM'S    SONS 
LONDON:   WILLIAMS  AND  NORGATE 

1 9 1 1 


EL 
51 


Now  first  translated  into  English  from  the 

Second  and  Revised  Edition,  with  a  speci<tl 

Preface  for  this  Edition  by  the  Author 


TRANSLATOR'S    PREFACE 

It  is  with  mixed  feelings  that  I  allow  this  translation 
to  pass  out  of  my  hands.  It  would  not  have  been 
undertaken  had  it  not  been  for  the  affection  which  I 
possess  for  my  old  teacher  and  friend,  and  for  the 
influence  which  he  exerted  over  my  life  when  I  had 
the' privilege  of  spending  nearly  three  years  with  him 
in  the  ancient  University  of  Jena.  And  such  an  ex- 
perience as  mine  is  only  a  specimen  of  what  is  true  of 
thousands  of  other  students  who  have  passed  through 
his  classes  in  Jena  since  1874.  These  students  are 
found  all  over  the  world,  and  are  all  imbued  with  some- 
thing of  the  spirit  of  their  great  teacher  in  connection 
with  the  problems  and  contents  of  religion. 

The  book  presents  peculiar  difficulties  which  will 
be  immediately  acknowledged  by  all  students  of  the 
author's  writings.  Much  is  lost  at  the  best  in  a 
translation,  and  especially  is  this  so  when  the  work  is 
that  of  a  prophet  of  religion  who  cannot  be  tied  down 
either  in  thought  or  mode  of  expression  to  the  level 
of  t  lie  writer  on  exact  subjects.  I  have  been  painfully 
conscious  of  the  inadequacy  of  language  to  express 
many  of  the  ideas  presented  in  the  book — ideas  which 
seem  inseparable  from  the  religious  experience  of  the 
living  personality.  The  terminology  in  many  portions 
of  the  book  moves  midway  between  Philosophy  and 


vi  THE  TRUTH   OF   RELIGION 

Theology,  and  I  have  endeavoured  constantly  to  take 
this  important  fact  into  consideration.  But  it  is  a 
Pact  of  great  difficulty  in  the  midst  of  the  present-day 
Mux  of  philosophical  terminology.  Whatever  the 
faults  may  be,  I  hope  no  one  will  detect  a  lack  of  fair- 
ness in  dealing  with  various  theological  conceptions. 

I  have  to  thank  my  wife  for  valuable  help  in  con- 
nection with  the  whole  of  the  translation. 

In  the  course  of  a  few  years,  two  large  editions  of 
the  book  have  appeared  in  Germany  and  the  work 
has  been  the  subject  of  a  large  number  of  books, 
dissertations,  and  essays,  by  many  eminent  German 
philosophers  and  religious  teachers.  I  hope  it  will 
meet  with  a  similar  reception  in  the  English-speaking 
countries  of  the  world,  and  help  all  who  have  at 
heart  the  furtherance  of  the  things  of  the  spirit  to 
differentiate  between  the  transient  and  the  Eternal 
in  Christianity,  and  to  labour  for  the  growth  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  in  the  deepest  consciousness  of  men. 

W.  TUDOR  JONES. 
Highbury,  London, 
1*/  November  \Q\\. 


AUTHORS  PREFACE   FOR  THE 
ENGLISH  EDITION 

The  author  of  this  book  has  found  so  much  good- 
will in  England  in  connection  with  his  efforts  that  it 
is  a  great  pleasure  for  him  to  see  his  main  work  on 
religion  appearing  in  English.  The  work  does  not 
pretend  to  present  a  system  of  religious  philosophy  ; 
but,  in  the  midst  of  the  present-day  controversy  over 
religion,  the  most  important  task  seems  to  be  to 
present  with  the  utmost  possible  clearness  the  solid 
nucleus  of  religion,  and,  along  with  this,  to  show  its 
main  rights.  In  the  conviction  of  the  author,  religion 
is  able  to  attain  a  secure  position  and  an  effective 
influence  only  when  it  is  founded  upon  the  whole  of 
life  and  not  upon  a  particular  so-called  faculty  of  the 
soul,  be  it  intellect,  feeling,  or  will.  It  behoves  us, 
therefore,  to  possess  a  plan  of  human  life  as  a  whole, 
and  to  inquire  whether  life  as  a  whole  turns  out  to 
indicate  the  operation  of  a  Higher  Power,  and,  hence, 
to  lead  to  religion.  The  primary  condition  of  this 
is  the  consideration  that  human  life  is  not  a  mere 
piece  of  nature,  but  that  a  new  stage  of  reality  reveals 
itself  in  it.  Such  a  revelation  is  actually  present 
in  the  Spiritual  Life;  and  we  are  not  able  to  grasp 
Sufficiently  this  tact  or  to  understand  its  effects  with- 
out recognising   that   the   Spiritual    Life   is  a    Whole. 


viii  THE   TRUTH   OF   RELIGION 

and  that  it  is  present  with  elevating  energy  as  a 
Whole  in  man. 

In  pursuing  this  path  it  becomes  evident  that  a 
universal  life — a  cosmic  depth — is  imbedded  in  the 
Spiritual  Life.  It  is  only  as  a  revelation  of  such  a 
nature  of  life  that  spiritual  creativeness,  art  and 
science,  morality  and  right,  can  develop  themselves 
and  transform  man.  If,  therefore,  all  genuine  Spirit- 
ual Life  is  the  effect  of  a  Higher  Power,  religion  is 
imbedded  in  it.  The  great  spiritual  leaders  of  the 
race  were  clearly  conscious  of  such  a  fact.  But  a 
religion  of  such  spiritual  activity  is  still  of  a  very 
indefinite  nature,  and  receives  a  distinctive  character, 
first  of  all,  from  the  fact  that,  throughout  a  grave 
upheaval,  in  a  conquest  over  suffering  and  wrong,  a 
further  stage  of  life — itself  a  kingdom  of  Divine 
Love — is  unlocked.  Herewith  religion  becomes  for 
the  first  time  an  autonomous  province  of  life ;  here- 
with it  brings  forth  a  new  and  unique  life. 

But  Characteristic  and  Universal  Religion — in  the 
sense  the  terms  are  used  in  this  work — must  remain 
in  living  relationship  and  mutually  further  one 
another,  for  thus  alone  can  the  whole  of  religion 
shape  itself  into  greatness,  and  thus  fortify  and  raise 
not  only  individuals  but  the  whole  of  humanity. 
This  fundamental  conception  tests  and  measures  the 
historical  religions  especially  according  to  the  manner 
in  which  they  shape  the  life  of  humanity,  and  accord- 
ing to  what  they  are  able  to  achieve  for  the  moral 
elevation  of  human  nature.  Here  the  conception 
decides  resolutely  for  Christianity  as  the  summit  of 
all  religions ;  but  simultaneously  it  demands,  in  view 
of  the  situation  of  the  present  day,  that  Christianity 


AUTHORS   PREFACE   FOR   ENGLISH    EDITION    ix 

be  more  forcibly  referred  back  to  its  essential  vital 

content  and  be  given  a  simpler  and  more  intelligible 

form,  and  be  freed  from  whatever  is  no  more  alive  in 

it  but  is  a  mere  heritage  of  past  times. 

The   Eternal    and    Divine   in    Christianity   is   the 

depth  of  life  which  is  unlocked  in  it.     It  has  become 

necessary  to  differentiate  more  clearly  the  Eternal  and 

Divine  from  the  transient  and  the  human  which  have 

so  intimately  mixed  up  with  it  in  divers  forms.     It 

is  only  a  conception  of  religion  which  binds  freedom 

and   depth   with  one   another,  and  which  heightens 

freedom  through  depth  and  depth  through  freedom, 

that   will    be  able  to   overcome   the   storms   of  the 

present. 

RUDOLF  EUCKEN. 

Jena,  1*/  November  1911. 


CONTENTS 


PART  I.— THE  UNIVERSAL  CRISIS  IN  RELIGION 


CHAP. 
I. 

II. 

III. 


The  problem  of  religion 
The  characteristic  features  of  Christianity 
The  movement  of  modern  times  against 
tianity      ..... 


Chris 


I. 


The  changes  in  the  world  of  thought 


(a)  Natural  science  and  religion 
(/3)  History  and  religion  . 
(y)  The  spiritual  life  and  religion 
2.  The  variation  of  the  direction  of  life 
IV.  d.  The  reconsolidation  of  religion  . 
V.  e.   The  explanation  of  the  developing  tendency 


PART  II.— THE  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF 
UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

Introduction  ....... 

VI.  a.  The  complexity  of  human  life     . 

1.  The  dualism  in  human  life 

2.  The  contradiction  in  human  life 

(a)  The  weakness  of  the  spiritual  motive 

powers  ..... 
(ji)  The  spiritual  impotence  of  man. 
(y)  The  insufficiency  of  an  alleged  remedy 
VII.  I>.    The  progressive  autonomy  of  the  spiritual  life 

I  .   The  Several  stages        .... 

(a)  The    emancipation    of  life    from    the 
small  self  and  the  merely  human 
order     ...... 

(/?)  The  inward  antithesis  overcome 
(y)  The  winning  of  a  universal  self. 


PAGE 

1 
10 


24 
24 
24 
28 
35 

39 
48 
63 


72 
86 
86 
94 

95 
99 

I  OS 

119 
1 22 


131 

I  42 


XII 

CHAP 


VIII. 


THE   TRUTH    OF   RELIGION 

PAOK 

2.   Epitome  and  survey    .          .          .          .          .  156 

(a)  The  meaning  of  the  spiritual  life         .  156 

(ft)  The  view  of  the  universe    .          .          .  1 63 

(y)  The  situation  of  man .          .          .          .  1 69 
(8)  Conclusions  for  the  method  and   the 

task  of  life 177 

The  fact  of  universal  religion      .          .         .          .  187 

1.  The  turn  to  religion    .          .          .          .          .  187 

(a)  The  problem  of  religion  in  general      .  187 

(/3)  Nearer  view  of  the  problem         .          .  188 

(y)  The  reality  above  the  world        .          .  195 
(a  a)  The  peril  to  the  spiritual  life 

from  its  surrounding  world  .  1 96 
(bb)   The  assertion  of  the  spiritual 

life  over  against  the  world  .  198 
(cc)    The  revelation  of  an  absolute 

spiritual  life  in  our  world    .  203 

2.  The  content  of  religion       ....  208 

(a)  The  idea  of  God          ....  208 

(ft)  Godhead  and  the  world       .          .          .  214 

(y)  Godhead  and  man       .         .          .          .  221 

(8)  The  psychic  connections  of  religion    .  226 
(c)   The    characteristic     features    of    the 

religion  of  the  spiritual  life    .          .  231 

3.  The  proof  and  confirmation  of  religion         .  243 

(a)  Religion  and  science  ....  243 

(ft)  General  considerations        .         .          .  256 

(y)  Special  pathways         ....  260 

(aa)  The  aspiration  after  infinity   .  26 1 

(bb)   The  aspiration  after  freedom 

and  equality  .  .  .  263 
(cc)  The  aspiration  after  eternity  .  270 
(del)  The  aspiration  after  fellow- 
ship and  after  a  soul .  .  273 
(ee)  The  aspiration  after  greatness  278 
Conclusion     .....  282 

PART  III.— THE  OPPOSITION  TO  RELIGION 

Introduction  ........  284 

IX.   a.  The  explanation  of  the  opposition       .         .         .  290 

1.  The  opposition  of  nature     ....  290 


CONTENTS 


CHAP. 


2.  The  opposition  of  culture    . 

3.  The  opposition  within   the  particular  pro 

vince  of  the  spiritual  life 
(a)  The  disruption  of  the  spiritual  life 
(/3)  The  disintegration  within  the  spiritual 

life 

(y)  The  impotence  of  morality 

4.  The  darkness  of  the  human  situation  . 
X.  b.  The  opposition  considered 

1 .  The  inadequacy  of  proposed  remedies 

2.  The  impossibility  of  a  negation  . 

3.  The  necessity  of  further  manifestations 

PART  IV.— CHARACTERISTIC  RELIGION 

Introduction  .....-■• 
XI.  a.  The  historical  religions       ..... 

1.  The  fact  of  religions  ..... 

2.  The  opposition  to  religions 

3.  Impossibility  of  a  simple  denial  of  religion 
XII.   6.   Signs  of  a  new  depth  of  life        .... 

1 .  The  idea  of  love  of  enemy  . 

2.  The  deepening  of  love         . 

3.  Self-maintenance  in  the  midst  of  hindrance 

and  suffering    ...-•• 

4.  The  progressive  development  of  inwardness 

5.  The  further  development  of  morality  . 
XIII.  c.   The  unfolding  of  a  religion  of  a  distinctive  kind 

1.  Introductory        ...••■ 

2.  The  new  life-process  ..... 

(a)   The  main  thesis  .... 

</i)  The  idea  of  God  and  the  relationship 

to  God  ..... 
(y)  The  verification  of  religion   through 
the     progressive     develop- 
ment of  life 
(tun   Elucidation   and    integration 

of  life  . 

(66)    The    further   development  of 
the  movements  of  life 


xm 

PAGE 

296 


306 
307 

313 
320 
325 
349 
349 
351 
362 


364 
366 
366 
374 
386 
391 
392 
395 

400 
403 
405 
410 
410 
419 
419 

429 


437 

137 

i  i  i 


xiv  THE   TRUTH    OF    RELIGION 

CHAP.  PAOK 

(cc)    Peculiar  effects  of  character- 
istic religion        .         .          .  448 
(dd)  Retrospect     ....  453 
3.   Religion  in  its  relation  to  society  and  history  457 
(a)  The  problem  of  the  Church         .          .  458 
(aa)  The   necessity  of  a   religious 

organisation  .  .  458 

(bb)  The    dangers    of   a    religious 

organisation         .          .          .  459 
(cc)    The   reconstruction   of  a  re- 
ligious organisation     .          .  467 
(/3)  The  relationship  to  history          .          .  475 
XIV.  d.  The  general  aspect  of  religion  and  life        .         .  490 

(1)  The  persistence  of  evil       .  .  .  490 

(2)  The  overcoming  of  evil      ....  493 

(3)  The    religious    interpretation   of  life   and 

the  world 498 

(4)  Faith  and  doubt :  the  denial  of  religion     .  518 

PART  V.— CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  PRESENT 

Introductory   remarks    concerning    historical    and 

absolute  religion     ......  534 

XV.  a.  The  eternal  in  Christianity         ....  539 

1.  The  nucleus  beyond  all  loss         .  .         .  539 

2.  The  maintenance   of  this   nucleus  against 

the  changes  of  time       .  .         .  547 

(a)  The  further  development  over  against 

nature  .....  547 

(/3)  The  further  development  over  against 

history  and  culture         .         .  .  556 

(y)  The  further  development  over  against 

the  changes  of  the  spiritual  life  in 

man       ...... 

XVI.   b.  The  transient  in  Christianity  and  the  necessity 

of  a  renewal  of  Christianity      .         .  .  576 

1.  The  removal  from  past  forms       .         .  .  576 

2.  The  necessity  of  a  new  mode  of  Christianity  591 
XVI I.  c.  The  situation  and  demands  of  the  present .         .            605 

Index        .......■••  "17 


563 


THE  TRUTH  OF  RELIGION 


Part  I. — The  Universal  Crisis 
in   Religion 

l^  CHAPTER    I 

a.  The  Problem  of  Religion 

He  who    wishes  to   ascertain  the   intrinsic   truth  of 
religion  need  neither  trace   its  blurred  beginnings  in 
time  nor  pursue    its  slow   ascent,  but  may  take  his 
stand  upon  the  summit  of  its  development.     For  it 
is  here  first  of  all  that  the  problem  of  truth  obtains  a 
clearness  and,  at  the   same  time,  an  urgency.     We 
need  not   trouble  ourselves    about  the  magic-shapes 
which  accompany   and   govern    the  initial    stages  of 
religion ;   and    we  need    not    occupy   ourselves    with 
religion  as  a  mere  aspect  of  early  civilisation  or  as 
a  mythology   of  nature.     Our   problem  begins  only 
where  religion    engenders  a    world    of  its    own,  and 
holds  fortli  such  a  world  over  against  the  remainder 
of  existence,  thus  transforming  the  remaining  world 
through   and   through.     Thus,  religion  holds    before 
man,  in  the  midst  of  his  province,  an  invisible  order 
of  things,  an   eternal   existence,  a   supernatural  life, 

i  1 


2  THE   UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN    RELIGION 

and  claims  his  soul  for  all  this.  Such  a  stated 
revelation  appears  not  merely  in  one  but  in  several 
points  in  history,  and,  further,  the  contents  of  the 
"  historical  "  and  the  positive  religions  vary.  Hut  the 
same  problem  presents  itself  in  all  the  manifold 
phenomena  of  religion,  and  a  sharp  Nay  as  well  as  a 
joyous  Yea  are  common  to  all  religions. 

Nowhere  is  religion  able  to  gain  man  for  its  new 
world  unless  it  frees  him  from  the  old  world,  and 
unless  it  enables  him  to  dislike  and  even  to  hate  what 
hitherto  had  swayed  and  enchanted  him.  There  is 
no  possibility  of  a  genuine  and  effective  turn  of  his 
life  without  a  breach  with  the  nearest-at-hand  world — 
without  the  clear  discovery  of  the  misery  and  vanity 
of  such  a  world.  This  world  must  displease  man 
not  only  at  certain  points  but  in  its  entirety.  All 
within  it  contains  not  only  much  pain  and  sorrow, 
but  all  within  it  is  inadequate  for  man's  highest 
happiness.  Man  is  not  only  menaced  and  oppressed 
from  without ;  he  is  troubled  from  within  by  anguish 
and  alarm.  It  is  only  an  entire  revolution  of  the 
nearest-at-hand  life  that  can  engender  a  genuine  and 
overwhelming  aspiration  after  religion,  and  it  is  only 
through  such  an  aspiration  that  religion  can  come  to 
birth  in  the  soul  of  man. 

Indeed,  the  harder  and  sharper  the  Nay  is,  the 
more  energetic  and  joyous  becomes  the  Yea  which 
religion  holds  out  to  man.  Religion  as  a  communica- 
tion of  God — of  the  highest  power  and  perfection — 
not  only  alleviates  in  some  kind  of  way  the  pain  of 
man,  and  not  only  heightens  somehow  his  happiness, 
but  it  promises  an  entire  freedom  from  evil  and  a 
translation  into  entire  blessedness.     The  new  world 


THE   PROBLEM   OF   RELIGION  3 

announced  by  religion  signifies  the  highest  conceiv- 
able world — the  summit  of  all  perfection.  The 
evanescent  and  diminutive  nature  of  man  shall  gain 
a  portion  in  the  eternity  and  infinity  of  this  new 
world,  and,  indeed,  man  shall  ascend  to  the  Divine, 
and  religion  will  finally  bind  the  Divine  and  the 
human  in  one. 

Religion  sets  our  life  in  a  stormy  conflict  and 
movement  through  the  revelation  of  such  immense 
prospects,  through  the  transportation  of  a  super- 
human aim  within  the  needs  and  exigencies  of 
human  existence.  Our  existence  raises  itself  to 
incomparable  greatness  and  intrinsic  value,  and  into 
our  being  the  essence  of  the  cosmos  enters  and  longs 
for  our  decision.  Our  circle  of  life  dissects  itself  into 
a  For  or  Against ;  the  customary  valuation  of  the 
excellencies  of  life  is  not  only  altered  but  inverted, 
so  that  now  that  alone  holds  valid  which  leads  us  to 
the  Divine,  whilst  all  that  holds  us  fast  to  the  ordinary 
world,  in  spite  of  all  its  captivating  brilliancy,  sinks 
to  the  level  of  an  evil.  "  If  any  man  cometh  unto 
me  and  hateth  not  his  own  father,  and  mother,  and 
wife,  and  children,  and  brethren,  and  sisters,  yea,  and 
his  own  life  also,  he  cannot  be  my  disciple." 

Hut,  besides  being  such  a  denial  of  the  world, 
religion  was  at  the  same  time  the  strongest  power 
within  the  world.  Nothing  has  so  much  united  men 
inwardly,  but  also  nothing  has  so  much  divided  them 
as  religion  ;  nothing  has  so  much  deepened  the  nature 
of  individuals,  nothing  has  so  obligatorily  driven 
forward  the  characteristic  tendencies  of  nations  as 
convictions  of  Divine  things.  Whatever  appears  in 
life    as    heroism    roots    itself   ultimately  in    religion; 


4  THE    UNIVERSAL   CRISIS    IN    RELIGION 

nothing  can  inspire  man  in  the  depth  of  his  soul, 
nothing  can  win  his  entire  self-surrender  unless  it 
has  linked  itself  to  his  religion,  or  has  become  a 
kind  of  religion  in  itself.  Indeed,  all  the  belief  of 
humanity  and  of  the  individual  seems  inseparable 
from  a  belief  in  the  indwelling  of  a  Divine  in  human 
nature — of  the  living  presence  of  an  eternal  and 
spiritual  energy  in  the  deeds  of  man.  He  who  has 
experienced  the  religious  problem  in  the  depth  of  his 
soul  is  never  again  able  to  free  himself  entirely  from 
such  an  experience ;  he  may  cast  it  off  and  banish  it 
to  a  distance,  but  when  he  does  this  he  cannot  but 
choose  to  lay  his  strongest  affection  in  the  realm 
of  negation  ;  he  cannot  but  choose  to  handle  the 
question  of  religion  as  the  main  question  of  his  life, 
so  that  unbelief  itself  becomes  only  another  kind  of 
versatile  belief  in  his  inmost  conviction.  Thus  the 
strongest  power  within  the  world  constitutes  in  reality 
the  conviction  of  an  over-world. 

But,  at  the  same  time,  religion  has  been  an  object 
which  has  been  constantly  spoken  against  in  a  harsh 
and  callous  manner.  This  happens  not  only  from 
the  outside,  but  also  from  the  deep  earnestness  of 
wrestling  souls.  Ever  anew  the  question  raises  itself 
whether  an  opening  to  the  Divine — whether  a  raising 
of  man  in  some  kind  of  way  to  a  Divine  life — is 
possible,  or  whether  all  assertion  concerning  this 
turns  out  finally  to  be  no  more  than  a  delusion. 
Must  not  all  that  affects  man  assume  a  mere  human 
form  ?  And  must  not  all  which  recommended  them- 
selves to  his  aims  enter  into  mere  human  notions  ? 
And  is  not  all  drawn  into  the  narrowness  and  the 
gloom  of  the  earthly  circle — is  not  all  confined  within 


THE   PROBLEM   OF   RELIGION  5 

the  barriers  of  our  nature  ?  Often  enough  what 
served  petty-human  interests  was  considered  Divine  ; 
the  forces  of  the  world  tore  such  a  Divine  meaning 
and  reduced  it  to  a  means  for  their  own  ends. 
Religion  promises  man  a  new  life  and  new  heart. 
But  has  it  not  often  knitted  itself  faster  to  the 
mechanism  of  the  world  and  heightened  in  a  most 
repulsive  manner  hate  and  jealousy,  vanity  and 
hypocrisy  ?  And,  further,  the  external  world  does 
not  correspond  to  the  conceptions  of  religion.  How 
could  the  external  world  hinder  so  callously  the 
upward  tendency  of  the  life  of  man,  how  could  it 
concede  to  unreason  and  injustice  so  much  scope,  if 
it  stood  under  the  secure  guardianship  of  an  all- 
powerful  Reason  and  of  an  Infinite  Love  ? 

Thus,  doubt  burns  like  a  devouring  fire  and  leaps 
up  into  the  external  province  of  religion,  and  also 
finds  its  way  into  the  most  holy  place  and  engenders 
a  tormenting  uncertainty.  Deep  by  the  side  of  their 
yearning,  ardent  souls  have  discovered  with  pain  the 
contradiction  of  the  appearance  of  things,  and  have 
found  no  consolation  in  the  customary  modes  of 
appeasement.  Indeed,  with  the  leading  religious 
spirits,  much  that  had  originated  from  a  joyous 
creativeness  is  hurled  back  into  the  abyss  of  doubt. 
The  stubbornness  of  doubt  changes  with  one  stroke 
the  total-outlook  of  things  :  the  joyous  high  flight 
is  retarded  ;  the  upward  energy  is  paralysed  ;  what 
hitherto  appeared  evident,  now  appears  impossible ; 
the  over-world  which  is  to  the  faithful  the  secure  and 
self-evident  standard  of  life,  recedes  into  an  inacces- 
sible distance  and,  indeed,  threatens  to  resolve  itself 
into  an  empty  illusion.      Religion  then  appears  as  a 


6  THE   UNIVERSAL  CRISIS   IN   RELIGION 

grand  error  of  the  human  spirit — as  an  image  of 
man's  own  existence  projected  into  the  All,  and  as  a 
dream  of  a  more  beautiful  life  to  which  a  reality  does 
not  correspond,  and  on  which  he  hangs  his  life.  He 
who  sees  through  the  dream  as  a  mere  dream  ought 
to  undertake  an  inexorable  struggle  against  such  a 
falsification  of  life  ;  he  ought  not  to  tolerate  patiently 
religion  but  struggle  with  it  with  the  whole  of  his 
energy  as  a  deadly  error.  Here  all  possibility  of  a 
third  course  falls  to  the  ground.  If  religion  is  not 
the  highest  and  most  fruitful  truth,  it  is  the  worst 
and  deadliest  of  errors  ;  if  it  is  not  the  work  of  God, 
it  is  a  diabolical  testimony  of  falsehood  and  darkness. 
How  can  we  decide  concerning  this  critical  point  on 
which  the  course  of  the  whole  of  our  life  depends  ? 
How  can  we  flee  from  the  intolerable  barriers  which 
lie  between  affirmation  and  negation  ? 

The  historical  religions  have  answered  these  ques- 
tions in  their  own  way ;  they  have  not  answered 
them  through  philosophical  doctrines  but  through 
the  real  facts  of  the  work  accomplished  ;  they  have 
not  reflected  and  disputed  merely  how  the  Divine 
glory  can  enter  into  the  world  of  man,  but  have 
undertaken  to  corroborate  the  possibility  of  the 
impossible  through  the  fruits  of  its  reality.  In  the 
personalities  of  the  founders  as  well  as  in  the  religious 
communities  the  wonder  seemed  to  reach  an  intuitive 
presence,  the  idea  seemed  to  incarnate  itself  in  flesh 
and  blood.  Religions  felt  themselves  in  the  posses- 
sion of  an  obvious  reality — a  reality  which  liberated 
them  from  all  insecurity  and  armed  them  against  all 
doubt.  But,  unfortunately,  the  fact  of  all  this  was 
not  so  simple  as  the  believers  supposed,  for  even  that 


THE   PROBLEM   OF   RELIGION  7 

which  was  to  overcome  doubt  raised  a  new  and  greater 
doubt. 

It  is  fact  of  an  Jiistorical  kind  which  is  expected  to 
consolidate  belief.  Such  a  fact  must  stand  out  from 
the  remainder  of  life  and  develop  a  distinctive  char- 
acteristic feature ;  indeed,  the  more  individual  does 
such  a  fact  become,  the  more  energetically  will  it 
work.  But,  as  an  expression  of  Divine  truth,  the 
same  fact  must  hold  valid  for  all  times ;  it  must 
govern  and  permeate  the  whole  compass  of  life.  Is 
not  an  intolerable  contradiction  imbedded  in  such  a 
belief  ?  Does  not  the  binding  of  life  to  one  special 
form  of  life  confine  life  in  too  narrow  a  groove  ? 
Will  it  not  cut  away  all  further  development,  and 
must  it  not  become  a  coercive  burden  which  incites 
human  nature  to  cast  it  off? 

The  most  casual  view  of  the  history  of  religions 
places  this  entanglement  clearly  before  us.  Every 
historical  religion  borrows  peculiar  convictions  of  the 
world  and  peculiar  valuations  of  life  from  its  envir- 
onment. The  environment  states  the  question,  and 
religion  undertakes  the  answer.  Thus,  every  Indian 
religion  lias  as  its  presupposition  a  strong  feeling  of 
the  transitoriness  and  unreality  of  existence.  Can 
the  imposed  solution  satisfy  any  one  who  rejects  such 
a  presupposition  ?  And  does  the  matter  stand  other- 
wise with  Christianity  ?  Can  it  speak  to  all  men, 
races,  and  times  if  it  maintains  any  definite  character, 
and  does  it  not,  dissolve  itself  into  vague  generalities? 

The  personalities  of  the  founders  constitute  the 
centre  of  the  historical  religions.  Nothing  gives 
the  presence  of  an  over-world  within  the  human 
circle   more   convincing  energy   than   the   unswerving 


8  THE   UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN   RELIGION 

constancy  with  which  such  personalities  are  rooted  in 
the  Divine  ;  than  the  manner  in  which  they  are  com- 
pletely rilled  by  the  thought  of  this  one  relation  ;  and 
than  the  simplicity  and  nearness  which  the  great 
mystery  has  acquired  for  them.  Hearts  have  never 
been  won  and  minds  have  never  been  swayed  without 
the  presence  of  a  regal  imagination  which  understands 
how  to  win  visible  forms  from  an  unseen  world,  and 
to  penetrate  through  all  the  multiplicity  of  things 
into  a  kingdom  of  a  fuller  life.  Nothing  so  elevated 
above  the  ordinary  every-day  existence  is  to  be  found 
as  this,  and  nothing  has  governed  in  so  compelling  a 
manner  the  hearts  of  men  as  such  a  secure  growth 
and  such  a  presence  of  a  new  world. 

But  all  this  is  individual  and  distinct  precisely 
where  it  is  great ;  so  that  the  religious  life  which 
issues  from  such  a  source  bears  a  thoroughly  indi- 
vidual character.  Jesus,  the  Buddha,  Mahomet,  have 
affected  humanity  in  fundamentally  different  ways. 
If  one  fundamental  form  is  offered  to  all  peoples  and 
times,  does  it  not  exclude  much  which  humanity  can 
not  and  dare  not  relinquish  ? 

Also,  the  attempt  to  mould  one  religion  into  a 
world-power  on  the  ground  of  history  is  dependent 
upon  the  particularity  of  the  transitory  historical  situa- 
tion. Such  a  formation  of  religion  requires  a  highly- 
explicitated  realm  of  thought,  and  the  means  to  obtain 
this  can  be  no  other  than  the  environing  culture  and 
civilisation  ;  yet  though  these  latter  seem  to  be  no  more 
than  hand-maids  to  religion,  they  work  powerfully 
upon  religion  itself.  That  culture  and  civilisation  were 
the  products  of  particular  peoples  and  epochs  ;  sooner 
or  later  the  whole  of  humanity  will  outgrow  them, 


THE   PROBLEM   OF   RELIGION  9 

and  if  religion  is  indissolubly  bound  up  with  them, 
the  breach  with  a  past  culture  and  civilisation  yields 
at  the  same  time  a  disunion  with  the  tradition  of 
religion. 

Thus  doubt  upon  doubt  rises.  The  Eternal  seems 
to  fall  under  the  ban  of  time  as  soon  as  it  touches  the 
ground  of  time.  But,  again,  if  it  stands  entirely  on 
an  immutability,  it  becomes  a  hindrance  to  all  move- 
ment and  a  denial  of  all  history.  But  history  is  ever 
present,  and  its  current  incessantly  carries  forth  some- 
thing new,  and  an  indestructible  need  of  the  life  of 
humanity  rejects  any  imposed  stagnation.  In  connec- 
tion with  this  difficulty  it  may  seem  as  if  in  the  alleged 
Eternal  it  is  not  so  much  the  Divine  and  Eternal  which 
reveal  themselves,  but  only  a  particular  kind  of  human 
and  temporal  notions  is  founded  and  sanctioned.  Why 
should  we  at  this  period  of  day  bow  before  such 
particularity,  and  why  should  we  renounce  the  inde- 
pendence of  our  own  life  ? 

The  historical  element  which  should  have  supported 
religion  becomes  thus  a  new  burden;  doubts  seem 
now  strengthened  all  along  concerning  an  over-world 
and  its  province.  Then  the  uncertainty  concerning 
the  whole  matter  bars  an  entrance  into  religion ; 
indeed,  the  more  we  puzzle  our  brains  and  worry 
ourselves,  the  further  religion  seems  to  recede  from 
us.  kt  God  is  the  easiest  and  hardest  object  to  know  ; 
the  first  and  easiest  to  know  on  the  path  of  light; 
the  most  difficult  and  last  to  know  on  the  path  of 
darkness    ( Leibniz), 


PART   L— THE   UNIVERSAL  CRISIS   IN   RELIGION 

(Continued) 

CHAPTER   II 

b.  The  Characteristic  Features 
of  Christianity 

The  general  problem  of  religion  increases  with  the 
turn  to  Christianity.  The  investigator  as  well  as  the 
believer  willingly  acknowledge  a  surpassing  greatness 
to  Christianity  among  the  religions  of  the  world.  In 
the  first  place,  Christianity  belongs  to  the  higher  of 
the  two  groups  into  which  the  historical  religions 
may  be  divided.  These  are  either  the  Religions  of 
Law  or  the  Religions  of  Redemption.  To  the  first, 
the  kernel  of  religion  is  the  announcement  and 
advocacy  of  a  moral  order  which  governs  the  world 
from  on  high.  A  fixed  decree  issuing  out  of  a  holy 
will  is  announced  to  man  for  his  acts,  words,  and 
thoughts ;  a  glorious  reward  awaits  the  fulfilment 
of  this  law,  and  a  painful  punishment  awaits  its 
transgression,  if  not  in  this  world  yet  in  the  world  to 
come.  Life  thus  in  the  whole  of  its  extent  is  linked 
to  a  super-sensuous  world,  is  drawn  to  the  daily  task 
and  to  the  decision  for  or  against  God.  Such  a  call 
to  man  would  be  impossible  without  the  conviction 
that  he  is  able  to  select  the  alternative  out  of  his  own 

energy,  and  that  his  will  suffices   for   the   adoption 

10 


CHARACTERISTIC  FEATURES  OF  CHRISTIANITY    11 

of  the  good.  On  the  other  hand,  the  religions  of 
redemption  declare  such  a  conviction  as  false  and 
superficial.  The  capacity  of  man  which  seems  so 
self-evident  to  such  a  conviction  becomes  to  the 
religions  of  redemption  the  most  difficult  of  problems 
— becomes  the  most  weighty  question  and  concern. 
Through  this  growth  of  the  problem,  man  appears 
to  the  religions  of  redemption  as  entirely  unable  in 
his  natural  state  to  reach  God,  and  as  a  being  who  falls 
continually  into  evil  and  semblance  ;  and  consequently 
such  religions  long  for  an  entire  transformation  and 
renewal — for  a  sinking  of  the  old  and  a  raising  of  the 
new,  and  for  a  great  miracle  of  redemption.  How 
such  a  miracle  is  to  happen  may  appear  in  the  begin- 
ning entirely  puzzling,  because  man  views  himself  here 
in  the  midst  of  the  most  difficult  entanglements.  But 
the  possibility  of  a  deepening  of  life  corresponds  to  the 
entanglements ;  life  is  conceived  more  and  more  as  a 
Whole,  and  is  stirred,  convulsed,  transformed  incom- 
parably more  than  hitherto.  The  very  opening  of 
such  a  question  relegates  the  religions  of  law,  despite 
all  the  merits  of  their  greater  simplicity,  transparency, 
and  rationality,  to  a  lower  level — to  a  level  which  has 
been  reached  and  passed  by  the  most  important  inward 
movement  of  the  world. 

Two  types — the  Indian  and  the  Christian — are  to 
be  differentiated  in  the  religions  of  redemption.  As 
both  types  understand  evil  differently,  they  seek  there- 
fore the  ••cure  of  souls"  in  different  ways.  To  the 
Indian  religions,  the  existence  of  the  world  is  prim- 
arily an  evil ;  the  world,  with  the  whole  of  its  natural 
constitution  in  space  and  time,  appears  as  a  kingdom 
of  empty  semblance.      All  in  it  is  transient  and  unreal  ; 


V2         THE   UNIVERSAL  CRISIS   IN   RELIGION 

nothing  in  it  has  duration ;  happiness  and  love  are 
merely  momentary ;  and  men  are  as  two  pieces  of 
wood  on  the  face  of  an  infinite  ocean  which  pass  by 
one  another  never  to  meet  again.  Fruitless  agitation 
and  painful  deception  have  fallen  upon  him  who 
mistakes  such  a  transient  semblance  for  a  reality  and 
who  hangs  his  heart  upon  it.  Therefore  it  behoves 
man  to  free  himself  from  such  an  unholy  arena.  This 
emancipation  will  take  place  when  the  semblance  is 
seen  through  as  semblance,  and  when  the  soul  has 
gained  an  insight  right  into  the  foundation  of  things. 
Then  the  world  loses  its  power  over  man ;  the  whole 
kingdom  of  deception  with  its  evanescent  values  goes 
to  the  bottom,  all  the  excited  affections  caused  by 
the  world  are  extinguished,  and  life  becomes  a  still 
and  holy  calm  ;  it  reaches  the  summit  of  a  dreamless 
sleep,  and  enters,  through  its  immersion  into  an  eternal 
essence,  beyond  the  shadows ;  it  passes  through  its 
dissolution,  into  a  state  of  entire  unconsciousness 
according  to  definite  Buddhism.  In  all  this,  no  new 
life  with  new  values  opens  out  in  front  of  us ;  the 
emancipation  is  supposed  to  consist  in  a  right  insight, 
and  each  individual  has  to  decide  for  himself;  the 
leader  can  only  point  out  the  road  ;  the  energy  to 
travel  over  such  a  road  is  a  matter  for  the  individual 
himself.  A  wisdom  of  world-denial,  a  calm  composure 
of  the  nature,  an  entire  serenity  in  the  midst  of  the 
changing  scenes  of  life,  constitute  the  summit  of  life. 
"  When  I  know  that  my  own  body  is  not  mine,  and 
that,  further,  the  whole  earth  is  mine,  and,  again,  that 
both  are  mine  and  thine,  then  no  pain  can  happen." 

What  a  different  kind  of  spirit  breathes  in  Chris- 
tianity !     Christianity,  too,  finds   the   world    full   of 


CHARACTERISTIC  FEATURES  OF  CHRISTIANITY    13 

misery  and  suffering.  Its  beginnings  and  its  summit 
are  not  to  be  glided  over  so  easily  as  is  done  by  the 
ordinary  Christianity  of  our  day.  But  even  all  the 
experience  of  suffering  will  not  allow  the  world  to  be 
simply  rejected,  but  far  more,  the  fundamental  con- 
struction of  the  world  appears  as  a  perfect  work  of 
Divine  wisdom  and  goodness.  The  root  of  evil  is  not 
in  the  nature  of  the  world  but  in  moral  wrong — in  a 
desertion  from  God  ;  and  it  is  this  moral  wrong  which 
first  of  all  brings  pain  and  death  into  the  world.  Such 
a  trespass  enters  so  deeply  and  paralyses  so  completely 
the  energy  of  man's  nature  that  the  world  out  of 
its  own  potency  can  never  again  harbour  the  Good. 
Therefore,  God  Himself  must  come  to  man's  rescue  ; 
He  does  this  through  setting  forth  a  redemption 
over  against  the  fall  of  man ;  He  does  it  through 
the  inauguration  of  a  kingdom  of  love  and  grace 
which  bestows  a  new  nature  on  man,  and  puts  its 
law  within  his  soul.  Through  such  a  conversion  man 
is  securely  raised  beyond  all  suffering  and  trespass  to 
Divine  holiness  and  perfection  ;  indeed,  the  deeper  the 
discovery  of  the  previous  misery  has  been,  the  greater 
the joyousness  which  emanates  from  such  aredemption. 
Thus,  there  grows  a  pure  impetus  of  life  from  the 
convulsion  and  the  misery  themselves  ;  the  union  with 
God  gives  man  a  secure  foothold  ;  the  domain  of  his 
life  (Joes  not  sink  into  the  abyss  of  nothingness  as  in 
the  Indian  conception,  but  he  gains  a  great  task — 
a  task  to  build  a  kingdom  of  God  upon  the  earth, 
and  to  gain  every  individual  soul  for  the  kingdom. 
There  originates  thus  here  out  of  effects  and  counter- 
effects  a  world-encompassing  drama  full  of  difficult 
entanglements  and   mysterious    puzzles,   but   still  of 


14         THE    UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN   RELIGION 

an    unfathomable    depth    and    of    an    immeasurable 
hope. 

Whilst  thus  the  Christian  life  binds  together  a 
world-denial  and  a  world-renewal,  whilst  it  ascends 
through  deepest  pain  to  highest  perfection,  and  whilst, 
at  the  same  time,  the  consciousness  of  trespass  and 
suffering  endures  in  the  soul  alongside  of  the  con- 
sciousness of  redemption,  it  develops  a  breadth  and 
depth  of  discernment  unknown  to  other  religions, 
and  it  gains  a  perennial  inner  movement.  Nothing 
lies  further  from  Christianity  than  an  attempt  at 
weakening  and  excusing  suffering.  For  what  purpose 
then  does  it  need  a  deliverance  if  suffering  does  not 
oppress  man  with  intolerable  gravity  ?  But  all 
suffering  cannot  stifle  man  and  drive  him  to  despair, 
because  Eternal  Love  raises  him  to  a  new  world — a 
Love  which  all  the  power  of  the  enemy  cannot  harm. 
But  this  new  world  has  to  be  wrested  ever  anew 
from  the  kingdom  of  darkness,  and  even  an  echo  of 
pain  is  heard  within  the  realm  of  blessedness.  Thus 
life  remains  throughout  guarded  from  inactive  repose 
and  luxurious  enjoyment,  and  after  the  conquest 
itself  the  struggle  does  not  cease  to  exist.  Man 
obtains  here  within  the  kingdom  of  belief  and  hope 
a  secure  treasure  which  appeared  at  the  outset  as  a 
distant  goal.  Thus  his  existence  becomes  simul- 
taneously a  possession  and  task,  rest  and  effort,  joy 
and  pain,  certainty  and  doubt,  and  along  with  all 
this  there  yields  itself  that  flow  of  inner  life  by 
means  of  which  Christianity  far  surpasses  all  other 
religions. 

Further,  the  Christian  life  is  especially  rich  in  that 
it  includes  in  itself  two  stages — the  belief  of  Jesus 


CHARACTERISTIC  FEATURES  OF  CHRISTIANITY    15 

himself  and  the  belief  of  the  Christian  community 
in  Jesus  Christ.  In  the  former  we  find  the  pro- 
clamation of  the  kingdom  of  God  upon  the  earth — 
the  kingdom  of  love  and  peace,  the  inauguration 
of  a  new  world  in  the  pure  inwardness  of  the  spirit 
of  man,  a  joyous  trust  in  the  nature  of  man  as  grounded 
in  God,  an  invitation  to  all  to  a  share  in  the  great 
enterprise  and  feast.  Fresh  youthful  feeling,  readiness 
to  serve,  world-pervading  love,  become  here  the 
carriers  of  a  characteristic  Christian  morality.  By 
the  side  of  the  belief  in  Christ  as  fixed  by  the  Church 
a  darker  picture  of  human  life  and  a  lesser  estimation 
of  human  capacity  prevailed.  The  idea  of  evil  has 
now  increased  to  mean  a  delight  in  destruction  and 
a  diabolical  rebellion ;  so  that  the  counter-effect  to 
evil  must  now  grow.  The  kernel  of  this  counter- 
effect  is  brought  about  through  atoning  and  redeeming 
sufferings — through  the  appearance  of  the  God-man 
for  the  redemption  of  a  humanity  that  could  not 
redeem  itself.  Suffering  is  thus  taken  up  into  the 
Godhead  ;  man  is  wholly  dependent  upon  a  miracle 
of  undeserved  grace  ;  the  Divine  Life  descends  deeper 
into  the  soil  of  humanity,  and  religion  is  raised  far 
above  all  ordinary  life  and  existence.  This  new 
stage  brings  forth  difficult  entanglements  ;  the  danger 
of  a  darkening  of  life  and  of  falling  into  a  blind 
devotion  and  into  a  mythological  mode  of  thinking 
takes  place.  But  in  all  the  entanglements  and 
dangers  mysterious  depths  appear  throughout,  and 
a  new  life  develops  not  only  through  a  relationship 
with  God,  but  also  through  its  collision  with  an 
envious  world  is  conducted  into  deep  inferences  and 
is  carried  into  a  more  triumphant  verification.     Chris- 


16         THE   UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN    RELIGION 

tianity  through  the  union  of  these  two  stages  carried 
once  more  the  opposites  of  life  into  wider  connections 
and  elaborated  more  energetically  than  any  other 
religion  its  experiences ;  for  in  the  contradictions 
themselves  a  greater  richness  of  life  and  a  more 
powerful  exertion  of  man  make  their  appearance. 

The  fact  that  the  opposites,  however,  did  not  lead 
to  an  entire  discord  but  that  the  effort  far  more  led 
back  to  some  kind  of  union  of  these  discords  in  a 
higher  unity  is  due  by  Christianity  to  the  supreme 
personality  of  Jesus.  It  is  true  that  tradition  has 
weaved  around  the  personality  of  the  Founder  many 
lineaments  which  belong  to  the  veneration  and  inter- 
pretation of  the  earliest  Christian  community,  but 
through  all  the  disguised  mist  there  is  perceptible  to 
every  unbiassed  mind  a  unique  mode  of  life  and 
character  of  incomparable  unity  of  an  individual  and 
intrinsic  kind.  Religion  has  here  transformed  itself 
into  a  human  purity  with  wonderful  energy  and  in- 
wardness ;  an  overtowering  height  has  joined  itself 
to  a  simple  innocence ;  manly  energy  of  action  has 
united  with  gentle  feelings,  and  a  youthful  joy  of 
disposition  with  a  deep  discovery  of  suffering.  The 
characteristic  world  of  spirit  has  here  acquired  for 
Christianity  a  personal  embodiment  and,  at  the  same 
time,  an  overwhelming  clearness ;  for  life  and  death 
a  proof  founded  upon  facts  has  been  gathered  for  the 
asserted  truth  to  which  Christianity  could  ever  return 
from  all  the  entanglements  of  the  course  of  the  world 
and  from  all  the  strife  of  parties  in  order  to  call  back 
to  memory  its  own  true  task,  in  order  to  create  fresh 
energy  of  life,  and  to  gain  clean  beginnings  for  life. 
The  personality  of  the  Founder  has  thus  become  in- 


CHARACTERISTIC  FEATURES  OF  CHRISTIANITY    17 

comparably  more  to  Christianity  than  the  founders  of 
all  the  other  religions  have  become  to  their  adherents. 
Christianity  in  this  has  a  possession  which  cannot  get 
lost — a  possession  that  binds  souls  to  the  Founder, 
but  a  possession  that  protests  against  the  caricature 
of  the  Church.  And  finally  the  excellencies  of 
Christianity  itself  must  not  be  forgotten — excellencies 
which  its  history  and  its  development  into  a  world- 
power  testify.  Originating  on  Jewish  soil,  Christian- 
ity found  its  education  especially  with  the  Greeks  and 
soon  afterwards  with  the  Romans.  Without  such  a 
contact  it  might  have  easily  remained  a  mere  Jewish 
sect,  but  through  these  two  connections  it  quickly 
forged  its  way  through  a  national  narrowness  and 
opened  out  its  effects  upon  wider  areas.  The  con- 
nection of  Christianity  with  Greece  and  Rome  was 
advantageous  in  two  ways.  On  the  one  hand,  the 
new  aspirant  met  a  universal  and  thoroughly-matured 
culture,  and  its  effects  for  the  ethical  and  spiritual 
renewal  of  humanity  found  their  most  precious  supple- 
ment in  the  desire  for  knowledge  and  the  sense  of 
beauty  of  the  Greeks,  and  in  the  energy  of  will  and 
organising  power  of  the  Romans.  At  the  same  time, 
notwithstanding  all  the  wealthy  possessions  of  culture, 
Christianity  found  in  the  humanity  of  the  time  an 
opposite  frame  of  mind.  For  the  glory  of  antique 
life  had  now  exhausted  itself,  and  dark  shadows 
announced  the  coming  of  the  night  In  the  begin- 
ning of  the  third  century  especially  a  deep  feeling  of 
fatigue  lay  over  the  whole  of  life  and  effort,  and  even 
in  less-resigned  natures  this  turned  into  a  strong 
longing    for   supernatural    aid    and    redemption.      As 

Christianity  went  out  to  meet  this  longing,  its  denial 

2 


18         THE   UNIVERSAL  CRISIS   IN   RELIGION 

of  the  nearest-at-hand  world  and  its  erection  of  a 
new  world  could  gain  the  entire  surrender  of  souls. 
Christianity  thus  shaped  itself  into  a  world-encom- 
passing organisation — into  a  Church — which  collated 
the  belief  in  a  present  Kingdom  of  God  with  a  visible 
object.  There  originated  an  encompassing  and 
governing  system  of  life  and  culture  as  religion,  which 
confidently  took  over  the  spiritual  guidance  of 
humanity.  In  reality,  the  Christian  Church  became 
the  mainstay  of  waning  antiquity  and  the  educator 
of  new  aspiring  peoples. 

In  the  midst  of  all  the  transformations  of  the  times 
and  in  the  midst  of  trials  from  without  and  worse 
ravages  from  within,  the  Church  proved  itself  the 
most  powerful  ally  of  the  life  universal  which  we  have 
witnessed  in  all  the  centuries  of  the  Christian  era. 

Thus,  Christianity  appears  in  the  whole  of  its 
effects  and  existence  as  the  religion  of  religions.  But, 
at  the  same  time,  it  contains  far  more  problems, 
meets  with  far  more  entanglements,  and  possesses  a 
more  intricate  content  than  any  of  the  other  religions. 
All  the  fundamental  points  of  Christianity  clearly 
show  all  this. 

Christianity  develops  from  the  connection  of 
personality  to  personality  a  new  world,  and  explains 
this  as  the  kernel  of  all  reality.  But  does  not  such 
a  world,  notwithstanding  all  its  depth  and  soul, 
become  too  narrow  for  the  extent  and  wealth  of 
existence,  and  is  it  alone  able  to  encompass  all  sides 
of  the  ethical  life  ?  Indeed,  does  not  a  danger  lie 
here  close  at  hand,  that  the  inaugurated  kingdom 
of  love,  gentleness,  and  peaceableness.  through  their 
severance  from  the  remaining  world,  should  become 


CHARACTERISTIC  FEATURES  OF  CHRISTIANITY    19 

merely  subjective  facts  and  weak  inactive  tendencies ; 
that  the  hard  opposition  of  the  world-powers  is 
less  gripped  than  ran  away  from ;  that  the  exacting 
humility  towards  God  becomes  a  slavery  towards 
man,  and  that  a  willing  endurance  should  acquiesce 
to  all  the  unreason  of  politico-social  relations  ? 
Christianity  uplifts  man  particularly  high  through 
the  union  of  his  nature  with  God — higher  than  any 
other  religion.  But  does  not  the  deification  of  man 
produce  a  humanisation  of  the  Divine,  and  has  not 
anthropomorphism  taken  root  in  Christianity  far 
more  than  in  the  other  great  religions  ?  No  religion 
has  more  definitely  flown  parallel  with  history  than 
Christianity,  but  no  religion  has  occupied  itself  so 
much  with  the  problem  how  historical  events,  not- 
withstanding their  particularity,  can  possess  and 
discover  eternal  truths.  No  other  religion  spans  so 
many  different  sides  and  stages,  and  consequently 
none  has  to  fight  so  hard  for  its  own  unity  ;  none 
has  been  exposed  so  much  to  the  danger  of  a  severance 
from  one  another  of  these  sides  and  stages,  and  of 
their  falling  out  of  the  domain  of  truth.  First  of  all, 
this  appeared  in  that  the  breach  with  the  ordinary 
world  was  not  made  decisive  enough,  and  did  not 
establish  itself  firmly  enough  ;  and  later,  in  that  the 
transformation  of  man's  nature  did  not  penetrate 
deeply  enough  into  the  great  deep,  and  thus  religion 
degenerates  into  a  mere  revolving  around  the  natural 
life  and  its  tendencies;  soon  after,  a  stubborn  denial 
of  the  possibility  of  bettering  the  world  turns  towards 
the  mere  cultivation  of  one's  own  environment  and 
threatens  the  soul  with  freezing  hollowness.  Also, 
the  two  sides  of  a  more  general  and  a  more  positive 


20         THE   UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN    RELIGION 

Christianity  came  easily  into  envious  combat,  and 
the  unity  of  the  whole  remained  an  ideal  beyond 
which  the  actual  situation  lagged  far  behind. 

But  it  is  the  religious  conception  of  the  personality 
of  Jesus  which  has  caused  most  trouble  and  strife. 
It  did  not  suffice  the  Christianity  of  the  Church  to 
believe  with  Jesus,  but  it  desired  also  a  belief  in  Jesus 
Christ  as  mediator  and  redeemer.  In  its  doctrines 
and  principles  the  Church  fought  with  its  whole 
energy  for  the  belief  that  God  was  present  in  the 
redeemer  not  only  in  isolated  aspects  and  energies, 
but  in  the  fulness  of  His  nature,  and  that  in  the 
person  of  Jesus  the  Divine  and  the  human  were 
bound  together  in  an  indissoluble  unity.  Herein  is 
imbedded  something  which  Christianity  can  never 
abandon.  Christianity  must  in  some  kind  of  way 
be  certain  of  an  inauguration  of  the  Divine  Nature 
within  human  life  if  it  is  to  possess  absolute  truth  and 
to  exert  an  abiding  influence.  But  how  is  this  union 
to  be  made  conceivable  ?  And  has  not  the  doctrine 
of  the  Church  concerning  the  Deity  of  Christ  as  the 
second  person  in  the  Trinity  been  a  mistake,  because 
it  has  mixed  up  a  fundamental  truth  of  religion  with 
philosophical  speculations  which  hardly  any  Christian 
can  understand,  and  because  at  the  same  time  it  has 
tacked  on  to  Christianity  the  mode  of  ideas  of  a  par- 
ticular generation — ideas  which  threatened  to  become 
mythological  to  later  generations  or,  indeed,  which 
have  already  become  so. 

Also,  in  the  history  of  Christianity  great  dangers 
and  entanglements  met  the  stated  gains.  The  antique 
mode  of  life,  whose  ideas  Christianity  willed  to  in- 
corporate,   became   more   alien    and    hostile    to    the 


CHARACTERISTIC  FEATURES  OF  CHRISTIANITY    21 

Christians  when  they  saw  through  its  real  nature. 
Christianity  had  previously  viewed  antique  culture 
and  civilisation  through  the  medium  of  a  religious 
disposition,  but  now  it  saw  that  such  a  mode  of  life 
had  no  meaning  for  historical  epochs  in  any  character- 
istic sense.  Antique  culture  and  civilisation  were 
borne  along  by  a  joyous  belief  in  a  reason  immanent 
in  the  world,  and  it  was  for  the  working  out  of  such 
a  reason  that  all  the  energy  of  man  was  called  forth. 
Does  not  Hellenism  with  its  equating  of  spirit  and 
thought  tend  to  entangle  Christianity  in  an  intellect- 
ualism  which  its  inmost  nature  combats  ?  And  do 
not  the  Greek  love  of  form  and  its  longing  after 
artistic  delineation  and  plastic  forms  tend  to  entangle 
that  pure  disposition  whose  sovereignty  Christianity 
proclaims  ?  Also,  the  Roman  mode  of  thought,  with 
its  existence  upon  a  solid  organisation  and  with  its 
forensic  treatment  of  all  relationships,  harmonises 
but  little  with  the  Divine  Kingdom  of  love  and 
peace.  The  soul  of  Christianity  through  all  this  was 
driven  back  and  enfeebled  ;  the  same  danger  has 
taken  place  through  ecclesiastical  forms,  and  the 
Church  has  largely  succumbed  to  this  danger.  It 
would  have  succumbed  more  had  it  not  been  that 
ever  anew  particular  personalities  had  opened  out 
once  more  the  original  fountains  of  life.  Christianity 
on  account  of  so  much  defacement  remains  yet  but  a 
high  ideal. 

Further,  the  lassitude  of  the  civilised  world  at  the 
time  of  its  initial  contact  with  Christianity  was  a 
great  disadvantage.  Christianity  had.  as  its  main 
purpose,  to  work  against  such  a  fatigue  with  its 
"glad   tidings,"  and  it  has  in   reality  planted  a  new 


22         THE    UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN    RELIGION 

life-motive  of  a  higher  kind  in  the  heart  of  humanity. 
But  through  the  enormous  influx  of  merely  external 
elements,  Christianity  itself  fell  under  the  strong 
influence  of  that  stagnant  tendency  of  the  age,  and 
relapsed  into  a  disposition  and  form  far  too  passive. 
Saturated  through  and  through  by  the  feeling  of 
corruption  and  weakness  of  human  nature,  man 
yearned  for  redemption  and  peace  beyond  all  else ; 
he  desired  to  unburden  himself  as  much  as  possible 
of  his  own  responsibility  and  to  be  protected  by 
some  fixed  authority ;  he  established  himself  against 
tormenting  doubt  through  belief  in  certain  data,  and 
brought  forth  the  miraculous,  the  magical,  and  the 
unintelligible  as  proofs.  To  such  a  mode  of  thought, 
the  spiritual  seemed  to  lack  a  completeness  of  reality 
without  a  sensuous  embodiment,  and  thus  both  the 
spiritual  and  the  sensuous  flowed  inseparably  to- 
gether. The  Divine  seemed  thus  to  be  more  highly 
honoured  the  less  man  and  his  capacity  were  valued. 
A  secure  rest,  beyond  all  the  life  of  the  world,  was 
found  here  in  God,  but  no  path  returned  from  this 
rest  to  the  reality  around  man  in  the  world  and  to 
an  energetic  possession  and  joyous  uplifting  of  the 
world.  All  that  is  of  a  spiritual  and  religious  nature 
in  such  a  position  was  experienced  by  the  mighty 
spirit  of  Augustine.  But,  at  the  same  time,  he 
stamped  for  future  generations  a  type  of  thought  of 
his  own  age,  and  brought  about  a  severance  of  the 
Divine  and  the  human ;  he  bound  the  spiritual  with 
the  sensuous,  the  invisible  with  the  visible  Church, 
and  the  effects  of  all  this  have  continued  ever  since. 
It  is  out  of  the  work  of  Augustine  especially  that 
the  religious  system  of  the  life  of  the  Church  grew, 


CHARACTERISTIC  FEATURES  OF  CHRISTIANITY    23 

and  it  was  through  his  energetic  concentration  that 
a  sheltered  ark  was  offered  in  the  deluge  of  that 
epoch  of  humanity,  but  which,  with  all  its  spiritual 
narrowness  and  constraint,  its  rigid  determinism 
became  intolerable  to  ages  of  more  courage  and 
independence. 

The  first  shaping  of  Christianity  consequently  could 
not  remain  incontestable.  The  first  great  counter- 
movement  originated  upon  the  ground  of  religion 
itself.  This  was  the  Reformation.  Portions  of  the 
Roman  and  Greek  influences  were  eliminated,  and 
the  inmost  kernel  and  unique  character  of  Christianity 
were  once  more  energetically  grasped  ;  through  the 
turn  from  the  Church  to  personality  a  more  original 
life,  greater  energy  of  character,  and  a  greater  dis- 
covery of  difficult  opposites  were  gained.  But  in 
spite  of  all  the  greatness  of  the  Reformation,  the 
whole  matter  stands  in  an  unfinished  state  through 
the  fluctuating  tendencies  between  old  and  new 
modes  of  thought,  and  through  the  failure  to  come 
into  terms  with  modern  culture.  There  is  thus 
nothing  to  prevent  the  appearance  of  a  movement 
in  our  modern  times  which  will  not  only  call  into 
question  the  ecclesiastical  form  of  Christianity  but 
Christianity  itself,  and,  indeed,  call  into  question  all 
religion,  and  so  involve  us  in  a  struggle  for  life  or 
death. 


PART   I.— THE   UNIVERSAL  CRISIS   IN   RELIGION 

(Continued) 

CHAPTER   III 

c.  The  Movement  of  Modern  Times 
against  Christianity 

Modern  thought  has  entered  into  conflict  with 
Christianity  not  only  in  certain  directions  but  in  the 
whole  of  its  tendencies  and  efforts  ;  and  it  is  not  the 
beliefs  and  whims  of  individuals  but  the  very  nature 
of  the  work  itself  which  has  led  to  a  stern  collision. 
Although  individual  responsibility  is  not  entirely 
absent  in  such  a  collision,  yet  this  responsibility  is 
not  of  the  kind  that  can  be  accredited  and  attributed 
to  individuals.  It  is  thus  necessary  to  distinguish 
the  movement  against  Christianity  from  the  work  of 
individuals  and  parties,  and  to  analyse  it  according 
to  its  own  inner  structure.  It  is  then  necessary  in 
the  first  place  to  consider  the  changes  in  the  world 
of  ideas,  and  afterwards  turn  to  the  changes  in  the 
domain  of  life. 

1.    The  Changes  in  the  World  of  Thought 

(a)  Natural  Science  and  Religion. — The  collision 
between  modern  thought  and  religion  is  most  visible 
in  the  realm  of  nature.  Traditional  religion  has 
interlaced   itself  with  a  naive  view  of  nature  which 

24 


MODERN   TIMES   AGAINST   CHRISTIANITY      25 

considered  the  earth  as  the  static  centre  of  an  en- 
circling universe.  Such  a  religion  understands  the 
creation  of  the  world  as  the  work  of  a  reason  superior 
to  the  world — a  reason  which  holds  and  links  nature 
together,  and  makes  it  a  means  for  its  own  ends. 
And,  further,  such  a  religion  gives  man  a  matchless 
position  in  which  all  the  conditions  are  connected 
with  his  weal  and  woe,  and  in  which  the  destiny  of 
the  All  is  linked  with  his  deeds — with  his  fall  and 
misery,  his  elevation  and  bliss. 

Modern  science  has  attacked  and  destroyed  such 
a  view  of  nature  at  three  main  points.  Since  the 
time  of  Copernicus  it  has  extended  enormously  its 
field  of  operation ;  it  has  discovered  world  beyond 
world,  and  has  reduced  the  earth  to  a  mere  speck  in 
the  universe  ;  it  has  removed  that  distinction  between 
heaven  and  earth — a  distinction  which  signified  so 
much  to  religious  conceptions  and  feelings.  Can 
then  that  which  is  only  a  satellite  amongst  an 
innumerable  number  of  fixed  stars  decide  concern- 
ing the  destiny  of  the  All  ?  And  what  becomes  of 
an  "  ascension  to  heaven  "  when  there  is  no  heaven  in 
the  old-fashioned  sense — no  above  or  below  in  this 
boundless  space  ? 

Next  comes  the  inward  change  of  nature  depicted  by 
Galileo  and  Descartes.  All  psychic  energies,  all  aims 
and  ends,  are  removed  from  nature,  for  they  resolve 
themselves  into  a  co-existence  of  the  most  minute 
elements  which  work  upon  one  another  only  through 
gravity  and  impact,  and  whose  whole  mechanism  is 
entirely  evident.  Thus  every  phenomenon  is  reduced 
to  the  same  level  and  nature,  and  it  follows  simple 
and  inviolable    laws ;    nothing   individual    or    unique 


26         THE    UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN    RELIGION 

can  break  this  circle,  and  no  psychic  energy  can  turn 
any  phenomenon  out  of  its  course. 

Such  a  mode  of  thought  which  invests  nature  with 
entire  independence  and  inner  completion  collides 
severely  with  the  religious  view  of  nature,  especially 
in  the  problem  of  miracle ;  for  miracle  is  as  intoler- 
able in  the  realm  of  this  mode  of  thought  as  it  is 
indispensable  in  the  realm  of  religion.  Miracle  is 
"  the  dearest  child  of  belief"  ;  to  refer  each  and  every 
phenomenon  back  to  natural  causality  seems  to 
destroy  religion  to  its  very  foundation.  No  religion 
has  so  strenuously  defended  miracle — even  sensuous 
miracle — as  the  Christianity  of  the  Church  ;  "  and  if 
Christ  hath  not  been  raised,  your  faith  is  vain." 
Modern  natural  science,  on  the  contrary,  has  un- 
mercifully driven  miracle  out  of  its  domain ;  miracle 
signifies  to  it  what  it  signified  to  Spinoza  —  not 
something  above  nature  but  something  contrary  to 
nature ;  every  particular  break  in  the  order  of  nature 
appears  to  modern  science  as  a  destruction  of  its 
fundamental  structure,  and  as  a  denial  of  its  validity. 

Miracle  is  but  one  point  of  the  acute  collision  of 
opposites,  for  in  reality  the  line  of  battle  extends 
much  farther.  The  transformation  of  all  into  a 
soulless  mechanism  renders  nature  through  and 
through  equally  indifferent  to  all  spiritual  values 
as  well  as  to  all  religious  and  moral  aims.  Nature 
follows  its  course  with  brazen  laws  and  has  no  regard 
whatever  for  what  is  termed  good  or  evil  by  man. 

"  Devoid  of  all  feeling 
Does  Nature  proceed, 
The  sun  shines  the  same 
Whatever  the  deed  ; 


MODERN   TIMES   AGAINST   CHRISTIANITY     27 

The  moon  and  the  stars 

Shine  equally  too, 
On  misdeed  and  darkness, 

The  good  and  the  true.'''' 

Thus,  the  human  circle  becomes  isolated  in  the  All 
of  things,  whilst  formerly  it  felt  itself  the  ruling 
centre. 

Finally,  the  doctrine  of  evolution  in  the  nineteenth 
century  appears  and  sets  the  coping-stone  on  the 
whole  of  the  previous  work.  Hitherto,  the  scientific 
conception  of  nature  found  an  insuperable  barrier  in 
the  organic  kingdom,  and  consequently  the  religious  in- 
terpretation could  always  return  to  this  one  impreg- 
nable citadel.  Lamarck  appeared,  and  later  Darwin. 
However  much  remains  disputable  in  the  theories  of 
both,  the  general  meaning  of  the  evolutionary  theory 
has  passed  from  the  realm  of  discussion  to  the  realm 
of  fact.  Scientists  are  agreed  that  the  forms  of  life 
did  not  stand  side  by  side  as  completed  things  in  the 
beginning,  but  are  causally  linked  with  one  another, 
and  the  higher  have  proceeded  out  of  the  lower 
through  natural  changes.  And  it  is  also  agreed  that 
man  is  related  to  nature,  and  that  characteristics  of 
nature  extend,  too,  into  his  life.  There  developed 
itself  thus  a  biological  interpretation  of  human 
and  mental  greatness  which  contradicts  directly  the 
ethico-religious  interpretation.  The  ethico-religious 
interpretation  measured  the  values  of  all  activities  and 
experiences  according  to  their  relationship  with  God 
and  with  the  Kingdom  of  God  which  was  above  the 
world  ;  the  biological  explanation  estimates  qualities 
according  to  their  use  and  their  preservation  in 
the  struggle  for  existence.     In  the  former  mode  of 


28         THE   UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN   RELIGION 

thought,  eternal  values  are  aspired  after  in  spite  of 
all  the  changes  of  time ;  in  the  latter  mode,  the 
valuation  of  things  must  perpetually  alter  according 
to  the  changes  in  the  external  situations,  for  what  is 
of  use  to-day  may  become  injurious  to-morrow,  and 
inversely.  In  the  religious  mode  of  thought,  a  pure 
inwardness  should  construct  itself,  and  the  gaining 
of  the  whole  world  could  not  compensate  for  the  loss 
of  the  soul ;  in  the  scientific  mode  all  tendencies  and 
efforts  are  directed  towards  the  external,  and  the 
"  soul "  has  become  an  empty  word.  In  all  this,  the 
irreconcilable  opposition  to  religion  is  evident,  and 
both  modes  cannot  possibly  exist  together.  But 
natural  science  is  here  in  our  midst,  and  has,  step  by 
step,  further  developed  with  a  constrained  kind  of 
necessity.  It  has  brought  forth  not  only  an  immense 
fulness  of  results,  but  has  even  opened  out  a  new 
course  of  thought — a  more  precise  insight,  a  clearer 
line  of  demarcation,  and  a  stronger  affinity  with 
causal  connections  and  real  facts ;  it  has,  through 
this  work,  turned  against  the  thought-course  of 
religion,  and  has  declared  religion  as  scientifically 
untenable.  Is  religion  able  to  withstand  such  a 
mighty  current  ? 

(/3)  History  and  Religion. — History,  to  the  op- 
ponents of  religion,  associates  itself  with  nature. 
Traditional  religion  in  its  combat  with  the  meaning 
of  history  has  experienced  a  blow  which  has  affected 
its  inmost  nature.  According  to  the  religious  view, 
human  history  and  even  our  earth  have  had  but  a 
short  span  of  existence,  and  all  that  appeared  on  these 
domains  received  its  aim  and  its  driving  energy  from 
the  Godhead    who   reigned  above   the   world.     The 


MODERN   TIMES   AGAINST   CHRISTIANITY     29 

Godhead  had  preordained  the  plan  of  the  whole ; 
destiny  had  linked  itself  to  each  individual ; 
prophets  and  heroes  were  sent  "  when  the  time  was 
fulfilled."  The  main  task  of  history  was  the  educa- 
tion of  human  nature — of  each  individual — for  an 
over-historical  eternal  life  whose  kernel  constituted 
the  struggle  between  good  and  evil,  and  which  con- 
nects itself  as  a  great  drama  from  creation  morn 
to  the  day  of  judgment.  Everything  outside  this 
remained  a  mere  environment,  and  had  a  significance 
only  through  its  relation  to  the  soul  of  the  whole.  It 
is  from  such  a  conviction  that  all  results  and  experi- 
ences were  interpreted,  and  one  grew  so  accustomed 
to  such  an  interpretation  that  one  believed  oneself 
able  to  verify  everywhere  and  at  a  glance  such  a 
guidance  of  affairs,  and  to  discover  everywhere  "  the 
finger  of  God." 

How  much  all  this  has  been  altered !  And  the 
change  has  happened  less  through  any  sharp  catas- 
trophe than  through  a  gradual  crumbling  away  and 
a  rebuilding.  The  extension  of  time,  just  as  the 
extension  of  space,  has  grown  into  infinity ;  science 
reckons  the  age  of  the  earth  by  millions  of  years  ;  and 
short  as  human  history  appears  in  comparison  with 
such  a  vast  period  of  time,  it,  too,  has  continually 
extended  its  duration ;  the  epochs  of  civilisation 
shrivel  into  insignificance  when  compared  with  the 
immeasurable  extent  of  "prehistoric"  times.  And, 
further,  as  the  presence  of  organic  and  also  of  mental 
life  seems  dependent  upon  certain  indispensable  con- 
ditions of  existence,  modern  thought  conceives  the 
existence  of  man  as  a  mere  episode  of  the  world- 
process     an  episode,  compared  with  infinite  duration. 


80         THE   UNIVERSAL  CRISIS   IN   RELIGION 

is  no  more  than  that  of  a  meteor  in  an  infinite  sky 
which  illumines  and  suddenly  vanishes. 

But  the  inward  transformations  have  been  still 
deeper.  History  as  well  as  nature  has  developed  an 
independence.  As  the  supernatural  was  subjugated 
to  nature,  so  the  over-historical  now  falls  under  the 
ban  of  history.  Certain  motive-powers  were  acknow- 
ledged within  the  human  domain ;  certain  aims  were 
exhibited ;  these  phenomena  linked  themselves  directly 
with  one  another,  and  thus  united  themselves  into  a 
great  web.  Each  individual  example  is  now  under- 
stood through  these  connections  ;  the  highest  instance 
is  now  no  more  valued  as  an  isolated  miracle,  but 
as  the  climax  of  a  movement,  and  such  an  instance 
grows  out  of  the  conditions  and  environment.  When 
history  is  understood  thus  as  something  that  has 
grown  out  of  a  prior  history  "  immanent "  in  it,  all  con- 
ceptions of  supernatural  powers  become  an  intolerable 
disturbance,  and  it  is  this  which  renders  history  such 
an  irreconcilable  opponent  of  traditional  religion. 

The  same  aspect  appears  in  the  knowledge  that 
any  movement  proceeds  and  progresses  from  point  to 
point — a  fact  which  conceives  history  as  a  continuous 
process  of  evolution.  Thus  history  as  a  whole  gains 
a  task  and  a  meaning  by  itself;  the  perspective  of 
a  better  and  even  an  endless  ascent  of  a  capacious 
future  invests  present  existence  with  an  expansion 
and  task  within  its  own  province,  and  raises  it  above 
all  the  evils  of  the  present.  The  religious  hope  of  a 
culminated  bliss  in  the  next  world  fades  away  before 
such  a  belief  in  the  future  of  this  world. 

Where  there  is  so  much  to  do  and  to  alter  within  the 
sphere  of  time— and,  indeed  here  alone  such  a  work 


MODERN   TIMES   AGAINST  CHRISTIANITY     31 

is  able  to  transform  reality  into  a  kingdom  of  reason 
— such  a  work  cannot  be  viewed  as  something  futile 
and  transitory,  and  consequently  aspiration  and 
hope  do  not  depend  entirely  upon  eternity.  Simul- 
taneously the  feeling  of  the  impatience  of  man  dis- 
appears. He  seems  now,  under  the  new  conditions, 
posited  before  all  else  upon  his  own  energies ;  he 
reaches  his  majority  ;  he  does  not  so  much  receive 
his  destiny  from  a  superior  power  as  that  he  shapes 
it  through  manly  deeds.  And  thus  it  is  not  towards 
a  supernatural  kingdom  of  God  but  towards  the 
welfare  of  man  and  humanity  that  the  focus  of 
attention  is  directed. 

The  conflict  into  which  the  historical  and  the 
religious  convictions  enter  becomes  specially  bitter 
in  connection  with  the  problem  of  truth.  Religion 
understands  truth  as  simply  eternal  and  unchange- 
able ;  although  the  Divine  revelation  discloses  itself 
within  time,  it  is  in  no  manner  a  product  of  time, 
and  it  does  not  follow  the  current  of  time ;  and  it 
views  all  change  as  a  degradation.  The  historical 
development,  on  the  contrary,  with  the  incessant 
shifting  of  its  situation  and  its  restless  progress, 
transforms  truth  into  a  child  of  the  times  (Veritas 
temporis  filia) ;  the  tendencies  as  well  as  the  convic- 
tions have  to  correspond  to  the  exigencies  of  the 
situation  of  things.  On  account  of  this,  all  spiritual 
values  become  fluid,  all  truth  becomes  relative,  all 
unfolding  into  absolute  validity  of  the  intrinsic 
content  of  thought  and  belief  is  energetically  fought 
against.  If,  however,  religion  can  never  renounce 
an  absolute  and  eternal  truth,  all  decision  in  favour 
of  history  will  be  a  decision  against  religion. 


32         THE   UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN    RELIGION 

Further,  the  detailed  formation  of  historical  in- 
vestigation becomes  highly  dangerous  to  a  religion 
such  as  Christianity,  which  rests  first  and  foremost 
upon  historical  events.  The  naive  mode  of  thought 
which  accepted  indiscriminately  the  transmitted 
picture  of  earlier  ages,  and  simultaneously  combined 
the  manifold  lore  into  a  homogeneous  whole,  cannot 
stand  before  an  awakened  conduct  of  life  and  a  keen 
critical  consciousness.  We  cannot  disguise  the  fact 
that  what  hitherto  has  been  accepted  as  unalloyed 
truth  and  as  a  genuine  expression  of  reality  contains 
ever  so  much  subjectivity  of  conception  and  adjust- 
ment, that  we  see  the  things  far  less  than  the  veil 
which  human  opinion  and  imagination  have  weaved 
around  them.  How  slowly  and  guardedly  do  we  climb 
even  to-day  towards  the  facts  as  towards  an  unattain- 
able ideal  which,  to  earlier  times,  seemed  so  safe  and 
certain.  Growing  historical  criticism  will  not  allow 
itself  to  be  removed  from  dealing  with  religious 
tradition,  for  hardly  anywhere  else  has  it  shown  so 
conspicuously  its  achievements,  purged  so  funda- 
mentally the  transmitted  pictorial  ideas,  and  trans- 
formed the  transmitted  picture.  What  appeared  in 
earlier  times  as  a  totality  or  whole  now  discloses  deep 
differences  and  pointed  contradictions  not  only  in 
subsidiary  aspects,  but  in  fundamental  and  essential 
characteristics.  We  find  this,  for  instance,  in  the 
New  Testament — in  the  widely  divergent  pictures 
of  Jesus  and  in  the  fundamentally  different  repre- 
sentations of  Christianity ;  so  that  much  which 
became  main  facts  to  believers  in  later  times  was  not 
so  to  the  original  witnesses,  or  if  it  were  it  was  only 
in  a  hardly  perceptible  form ;  and  no  unbiassed  mind 


MODERN   TIMES   AGAINST   CHRISTIANITY     33 

can  fail  to  detect  a  great  chasm  between  the  dogmas 
of  the  Church  and  their  historical  foundation  in  the 
Bible.  All  this  gives  rise  to  problems  concerning 
the  authenticity  of  the  sources  with  all  their  agitated 
and  minute  discussions.  Whether  the  results  of 
criticism  are  positive  or  negative  is  of  far  less  im- 
portance than  that  the  trustworthiness  of  the  records 
depends  upon  scientific  proof,  and  that  the  Divine 
is  not  poured  directly  upon  us,  but  is  to  be  found 
by  man  through  the  toilsome  work  of  thought.  The 
criticism  and  conclusions  reached  by  this  mode  of 
thought  have  irreparably  destroyed  the  halo  which 
once  surrounded  the  tradition ;  the  dazzling  light  of 
science  has  dispelled  unmercifully  that  dreamlike 
semi-darkness  of  the  religious  imagination  in  which 
heaven  and  earth  seemed  to  blend  into  one  another. 
Thus  the  gains  of  history  become  a  loss  to  religion. 
Asa  religion  founded  upon  history  experiences  a  loss 
in  so  far  as  the  more  precise  insight  and  the  more 
essential  conception  of  the  past  become  clear  through 
the  necessary  results  of  a  critical  mode  of  inquiry 
which  fixes  the  boundaries  more  distinctly  between 
one  age  and  another,  and  along  with  this  utilises  the 
results  of  the  past,  an  easy  inundation  of  the  effects  of 
such  criticism  is  forbidden  by  such  a  religion.  Sacred 
history  was  pictorially  present  to  earlier  generations, 
and  they  saw  the  particular  time  and  surroundings 
in  the  light  of  this  history.  Whilst  historical  criticism 
has  rendered  this  impossible,  it  has  at  the  same  time 
destroyed  the  predominant  position  of  sacred  history. 
Hut  the  doubt  and  discord  reach  still  deeper.  The 
inner  content  of  the  tradition  becomes  a  problem  to 
modern  thought,  but  such  a  mode  of  thought  finds  it 

«5 


:54         THE   UNIVERSAL  CRISIS   IN    RELIGION 

impossible  to  establish  basal  convictions  upon  historical 
events.  What  influences  the  spiritual  self-preservation 
of  man  must  be  experienced  in  the  form  of  immediacy, 
and  must  be  verified  by  man  himself,  and  all  this  can- 
not be  imposed  from  without.  Whilst  the  Aufkllirung 
for  the  first  time  brought  this  truth  to  expression  over 
against  all  bare  tradition,  it  differentiated  too  sharply 
reason  and  history,  the  individual  life  and  tradition, 
and  overestimated  the  power  of  any  present  moment 
of  consciousness.  But  even  we  who  view  history  in 
a  more  friendly  manner  are  not  able  to  give  up  the 
self-reliance  which  life  has  gained  through  such  a 
turn ;  and  yet  history  for  us  to-day  can  never  take 
the  first  but  the  second  place,  because  only  so  much 
in  it  can  be  valid  for  our  life  as  allows  itself  to  enter 
into  self-consciousness.  In  this  respect  the  words  of 
Lessing  hold  valid  for  us :  "  Accidental — i.e.  actually 
empirical — truths  of  history  can  never  become  proofs 
of  the  necessary  truths  of  reason."  And  if  life  thus 
disengages  itself  from  the  bond  of  history,  it  becomes 
an  intolerable  coercion  to  bind  the  salvation  of  man 
to  an  easy  acknowledgment  of  historical  events. 
"  To  state  that  a  historical  belief  is  a  duty  and  that  it 
belongs  to  salvation  is  superstition"  (Kant).  "Let 
no  one  assert  that  it  does  no  harm  to  cling  to  such 
historical  beliefs.  It  is  injurious  in  that  subsidiary 
facts  are  given  equal  validity  with  essential  ones,  or, 
indeed,  are  presented  as  the  essential  facts,  and  con- 
sequently the  main  facts  are  suppressed  and  the 
conscience  is  tormented  "  (Fichte). 

The  meaning  of  history  has  thus  brought  forth  all 
along  the  line  a  mode  of  thought  other  than  is  appre- 
hended  by   religion.     And  no  religion  has  received 


MODERN   TIMES   AGAINST   CHRISTIANITY      35 

greater  shocks  in  this  respect  than  Christianity,  on 
account  of  the  fact  that  it  is  more  closely  bound  up 
with  historical  points  of  view  as  well  as  with  historical 
events  than  any  other  religion. 

(y)  The  Spiritual  Life  and  Religion. — Religion  is 
so  injuriously  affected  by  nature  and  history  that  the 
most  important  point  has  not  yet  been  touched  by  us. 
This  point  lies  in  the  inner  nature  of  life  itself — a 
point  which  is  the  source  of  all  practical  proof  and 
mode  of  thinking.  Between  that,  on  the  one  hand, 
which  religions  in  general  teach,  and  that,  on  the  other 
hand,  which  modern  culture  in  the  whole  of  its  de- 
velopment maintains,  a  deep  cleft  has  been  created,  so 
that  what  hitherto  had  held  valid  as  the  kernel  of  all 
reality  now  threatens  to  vanish  into  a  hollow  semblance. 

The  life  of  the  human  soul,  from  the  standpoint  of 
an  old  mode  of  thought,  was  most  intimately  woven 
with  the  environment  of  the  world ;  mutual  energies 
swayed  within  and  without  in  the  particular  and  in 
the  general,  and  all  things  seemed  to  find  their  true 
rest  in  the  mind  and  soul  of  man.  No  kind  of  doubt 
could  be  raised  as  to  the  legitimacy  of  depicting  the 
all-ruling  Power  in  terms  of  human  analogy,  or  to 
understand  the  intercourse  with  such  a  Power  as  a 
relationship  of  soul  to  soul  in  the  manner  of  relation- 
ship <>l"  man  with  man.  All  the  values  of  religion 
thus  shaped  themselves  by  means  of  the  immediate 
life  of  the  soul  of  man  ;  from  such  a  point  of  im- 
mediacy alone  could  sucli  conceptions  as  love,  grace, 
and  I  nisi  obtain  a  meaning.  No  religion,  however, 
places  the  inwardness  of  the  soul  higher  than  Chris- 
tianity with  its  message  of  an  Infinite  Love  and  of 
the  immediate  presence  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 


86         THE   UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN    RELIGION 

Now,  the  work  of  modern  times,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  has  altered  in  an  important  manner  the  position 
and  the  valuation  of  the  life  of  the  soul.  The  soul 
has  been  banished  out  of  nature,  and,  along  with  this, 
out  of  the  world  ;  thus  it  had  to  shape  itself  into  a 
particular  kingdom  of  its  own — into  a  totality  of  life 
and  thought  within  its  own  circle.  The  barriers  of  such 
an  isolated  life  become  more  and  more  perceptible ; 
as  a  mere  solipsism,  as  a  relationship  of  all  phenomena 
to  each  other  in  a  point  outside  itself,  and  as  a 
subjective  neutrality  the  soul  becomes  too  narrow  for 
a  spiritual  work  which  more  and  more  decisively 
develops  a  cosmic  character.  Thus,  the  larger  and 
wider  outlook  disengages  itself  from  the  immediate 
consciousness,  turns  against  the  soul,  and  sets  it  in 
a  position  of  a  mere  epiphenomenon.  Thus,  the 
particular  forms  of  life,  such  as  art  and  science,  politics 
and  technics,  separate  themselves  and  form  provinces 
of  their  own,  and  such  happens  finally  with  the  whole 
results  of  culture.  Everywhere  independent  provinces 
originate  and  engender  their  own  tasks,  laws,  and 
motive-powers ;  they  carry  their  own  aims  and  ends 
in  themselves,  reject  all  relationship  with  the  self- 
existence  of  the  soul,  and  look  upon  all  standards 
which  value  the  deeper  welfare  of  the  individual  as 
disfigurements.  United  indissolubly  with  modern 
culture  are  its  impersonal  character,  its  continuous 
positing  on  itself  and  continuous  movement  outside 
itself,  and  its  alleged  superiority  over  all  human  plans 
and  "ends."  Indeed,  the  true  greatness  of  man  now 
appears  in  that  he  lays  on  one  side  all  mere  self- 
existence,  and  transforms  himself  into  a  willing  tool  of 
the  processes  of  civilisation  and  culture.     No  one  has 


MODERN   TIMES   AGAINST  CHRISTIANITY      37 

presented  such  a  penetrating  and  fundamental  view 
of  the  whole  processes  of  modern  civilisation  and 
culture  as  Hegel,  and  his  ideas  have  operated  with 
remarkable  effect  through  the  nineteenth  century  right 
up  to  the  present  day. 

But  such  a  work  and  creativeness.  brought  about 
through  actual  necessities,  are  not  able  to  draw  the 
life  into  themselves  without  an  entire  transformation 
of  its  ideals.  The  subjective  disposition  and,  along 
with  it,  all  the  ethical  relationships  of  man  retire 
when  face  to  face  with  the  proclamation  of  an 
external  spiritual  energy  and  with  the  co-operation 
in  that  process  of  civilisation.  Consequently  the  old 
inwardness  of  the  soul  with  all  its  greatness  and 
goodness  is  ordered  out  of  the  centre  of  life  to  the 
periphery ;  indeed,  the  soul  is  now  driven  not  only 
out  of  nature  but  out  of  its  own  inward  life  as  well. 

We  cannot  conceive  of  a  more  deadly  assault  on 
religion  than  all  this.  For  if  the  soul  sinks  so  low  to 
the  level  of  a  subsidiary  thing,  it  cannot  furnish  the 
standard  for  man's  view  of  reality,  and,  consequently, 
the  whole  ideal  world  of  religion  appears  as  a  mere 
anthropomorphism  and  as  an  unbearable  falsification 
of  reality.  Positivism,  following  such  a  train  of 
thought,  has  considered  religion  as  a  mere  stage  of 
development  upon  which  man,  through  a  childish 
illusion,  sees  magnified  human  powers  in  the  universe, 
and  believes  himself  capable  of  conversing  with  such 
powers.  Positivism  has  not  the  least  place  for 
religion  in  the  old  sense.  If  it  continues  to  hold 
some  kind  of  conception  of  God,  this  cannot  signify 
anything  more  than  a  basal  world-substance  or  a 
pervading  world-energy.      Here  no  personal  relation- 


38         THE    UNIVERSAL  CRISIS   IN   RELIGION 

ship  to  such  a  substance  is  gained,  and  conceptions 
such  as  love  and  grace,  belief  and  trust,  lose  their 
meaning.  It  is  not  only  this  or  that  point  in  religion 
which  now  becomes  a  mythology,  but  the  whole  of 
religion  itself;  it  becomes  now  a  stage  of  life  which 
has  been  passed  by  mental  development.  And  along 
with  the  downfall  of  religion,  the  downfall  of  morality 
takes  place,  for  how  can  qualities  such  as  character 
and  conviction  signify  a  value  if  all  independent  inner 
life  is  suppressed  ?  Such  an  ejection  of  religion  and 
morality  by  an  impersonal  process  of  culture  must 
affect  Christianity  in  a  most  severe  manner,  as  it  has 
maintained  the  independence  of  the  inner  life  more 
confidently  and  has  developed  itself  more  powerfully 
than  any  other  religion.  Indeed,  according  to  this 
positivistic  mode  of  thinking,  the  higher  Christianity 
sets  its  aim,  the  deeper  must  its  fall  now  be. 

Thus,  it  is  not  only  on  account  of  the  new  concep- 
tion of  nature  and  of  historico-social  work  but  also 
on  account  of  the  fundamental  woof  of  life  itself 
that  religion — indeed,  all  possibility  of  a  religion — is 
driven  out.  All  the  counter-effects  mutually  protect 
and  heighten  one  another.  This  work,  in  particular 
points,  is  far  from  creating  a  negation,  and  it  is  often 
asserted  with  an  honourable  conviction  that  the  special 
changes  in  our  views  of  nature  and  history  leave  un- 
touched the  entire  stability  of  religion.  But,  indeed, 
when  it  happens  in  other  points — and  in  all  other 
points — that  all  the  particular  corner-stones  crumble 
into  pieces,  what  becomes  of  the  construction  of  the 
whole  building  ?  The  greatness  and  pre-eminence 
of  this  mode  of  thought  is  that  men  proceeded  at  the 
start  not  to  destroy  in  any  way,  but  were  far  more 


MODERN   TIMES   AGAINST  CHRISTIANITY     39 

desirous  to  bind  and  to  fit  into  one  another  the  old  and 
the  new ;  but  the  truths  discovered  cast  off  all  the 
adornment  and,  indifferent  to  human  views  and 
plans,  went  their  way  towards  their  own  goal.  And 
this  road  leads  towards  the  destruction  of  religion. 

2.    The  Variation  of  the  Direction  of  Life 

It  needs  but  few  words  in  order  to  show  that  a 
change  in  the  drift  of  life  corresponds  to  the  trans- 
formation of  the  world  of  ideas.  Hand  in  hand  with 
natural  science  proceeds  the  development  of  modern 
technics,  and  with  the  rise  of  this,  man  has  ceased  to 
be  powerless  against  nature,  and  has  become  far  more 
its  lord  and  ruler.  He  can  now  with  good  courage 
take  up  the  struggle  against  all  limits  and  hindrances  ; 
he  can  extend  his  life  beyond  all  bounds  through  the 
appropriation  of  natural  energies ;  he  can  accelerate 
the  richness  of  life,  and  shape  it  into  greater  enjoy- 
ment. Through  the  progressive  inauguration  of  new 
perspectives  and  tasks  he  gains  a  remarkable  con- 
sciousness of  human  capacity  and  human  superiority. 
This  disposition  of  joyous  energy  and  courageous 
faith  develops  over  against  the  historico-social  life. 
Constraint  and  unreason  cease  to  be  conceived  as 
necessities  laid  upon  him  by  destiny  whose  effects 
he  may  alleviate  but  whose  root  he  cannot  destroy. 
.Modern  man,  in  the  use  of  all  the  means  of  culture 
and  the  severe  clash  of  energies,  Peels  himself  strong 
enough  to  shape  his  existence  into  a  kingdom  of 
reason,  and  to  make  the  real  rational  and  the  rational 
real.  However  many  the  oppositions  which  stand 
against  him,   they  produce  a   feeling  of  life   which   is 


to  THE   UNIVERSAL  CRISIS   IN   RELIGION 

far  more  a  stimulus  than  a  deterrent  to  activity.  In 
any  case,  man  does  not  expect  this  result  to  proceed 
from  any  supernatural  agencies,  but  achieves  it 
through  his  own  inmost  exertions.  In  addition  to 
this,  that  new  ideal  of  life  appears  with  its  superiority 
to  all  human  inactivity  and  its  inauguration  of  an 
immeasurably  richer  Spiritual  Life  of  an  objective 
kind  filled  with  independent  contents  and  moved  by 
inner  necessities.  Infinitely  more  clearness,  breadth, 
and  reality  seem  to  enter  into  our  life  through  all 
this,  as  well  as  a  truth  which  does  not  proceed  from 
a  supernatural  communication  but  from  our  own 
activity. 

Indeed,  our  environing  world  furnishes  an  abun- 
dance of  work  and  expansion  ;  it  is  able  to  occupy 
man  with  itself  so  as  to  hold  him  fast  in  the  inward- 
ness of  his  being,  so  that  not  the  least  desire  arises 
for  another  mode  of  life.  The  more  such  a  tendency 
in  the  direction  of  the  world  takes  possession  of 
the  whole  soul  of  man,  the  more  religion  loses  its 
foundation,  the  clearer  becomes  the  opposition  to 
the  ages  in  which  Christianity  gained  its  most 
important  achievements,  and  the  greater  appears 
the  whole  history  of  modern  times  as  a  progressive 
transference  of  life  from  a  world  of  belief  and  fancy 
into  the  world  of  immediate  existence. 

Christianity  in  its  beginnings  could  never  have 
undertaken  its  work  for  humanity  without  setting 
up  a  world  of  belief  and  hope  over  against  the  exist- 
ing world,  and  to  announce  such  a  new  world  as  the 
true  home  of  man.  When  Christianity,  however, 
reached  its  conquest  it  laid  the  world  "  beyond "  in 
front  of  a  tired  world   devoid  of  any  special  hope ; 


MODERN   TIMES   AGAINST   CHRISTIANITY      41 

and  now   the  hoped-for  life   did    not    seem   able   to 
proceed  from  the  present  world,  but  proceeded  only 
out  of  a  new  order  of  things.     The  character  of  the 
present  world  is   depicted   so  clearly  by   Augustine 
through  the  ardour  of  his  conviction  and  the  energy 
of  his  writings.     The  new  world  is  to  him  no  distant 
realm  but  the  most  intimate  world,  which  furnishes 
first  and  foremost  in  the  toils  and  tangles  of  existence 
a  spiritual  self-reliance,  and  which  alone  justifies  the 
will  to  live.     But  the  new  world  drives  the  sensuous 
world  to  the   periphery  of  existence,  and   draws  to 
itself  the   work    and    affection    of    man.      All   the 
ramifications  of  culture  and  civilisation,  according  to 
Augustine,  had  but  one  aim — to  raise  man  to  a  higher 
world,  to  indicate  to  the   manifold  the  necessity  of 
reaching   a  world-swaying   unity,    and  to    direct   all 
activity   to   the   point   where    its    toil    and   anxiety 
suddenly  change  into  an  intuitive  vision  of  Eternal 
Truth  and  into  the  worship  of   Infinite    Love.     An 
inmost  kernel  of  the  life  of  the  soul  is  here  raised 
above  all  the  entanglement  of  the  work  of  the  world, 
and  anchors  securely  in  the  Divine  Life.     From  such 
a  level  above  the  world,  the  soul  is  not  driven  back 
again  to  the  world  ;   man  feels  himself  most  secure 
in  the  midst  of  the  continuance  of  opposites  and  in 
the  midst  of  all  the  knocks  of  all  toil  and  anxiety. 
"  Thou  hast  created  us  for   Thyself,  and   our  heart 
is  not  at  rest  until  it  rests  in  Thee."     This  religion 
of  a  thorough  transcendental  kind  experiences  in  the 
Church-system  of  the  Middle  Ages  a  certain  humani- 
sation  and  mellowing,  but  the  world  of  belief  remained 
still  the  main    world,    but  it    had    now    become  the 
nearest  inmost  world  of  the  soul,  and  was  designated 


42         THE   UNIVERSAL  CRISIS  IN   RELIGION 

at  the  height  of  Scholasticism  as  Fatherland  [patria). 
All  this  meant  that  religion  formed  the  kernel  of 
life,  and  that  the  Church  beeame  the  carrier  of  all 
the  ideal  interests  of  humanity.  Hut  a  new  path 
of  most  important  significance  was  soon  opened  by 
new  nations  with  their  fresh  courage  of  life.  The 
prior  life  with  its  belief  and  hope,  with  its  weaving 
of  a  feeling  alien  to  the  world,  lost  gradually  its  power 
of  attraction  ;  it  was  discovered  as  being  too  passive, 
too  soft  and  dreamy  ;  the  desire  arose  stronger  and 
stronger  after  dealings  and  connections  with  the 
world  around  us — after  an  exercise  of  human  energy 
in  the  struggle  with  the  hardness  of  the  things  of 
the  world,  and  after  a  more  awakened  and  more 
genuine  life.  Man  and  the  world  were  more  sharply 
severed  ;  subject  and  object  were  more  clearly  differ- 
entiated. A  new  morning  seemed  to  dawn  and  an 
immeasurable  day's  work  lay  before  humanity.  Thus 
meaning  and  thought  entered  more  and  more  into 
the  world  instead  of  severing  themselves  from  it ; 
the  natural  impulse  of  life  is  changed  throughout, 
and  this  change  was  not  favourable  to  religion. 

But  this  great  change  culminated  very  gradually, 
and  appeared  in  three  main  stages.  The  new  life 
appears  first  of  all  in  the  Renaissance ;  the  minds  of 
men  here  moved  freer,  and  the  narrowness  of  the 
ideas  with  which  man  had  depicted  human  life  and 
the  world  fell  away.  Man  now  not  only  discovers 
distant  lands,  but  before  all  else  he  discovers  himself, 
gains  a  vivid  consciousness  of  his  own  energy,  and 
takes  a  joyous  possession  of  the  unlimited  opulence 
of  the  world.  What  draws  and  holds  man  is,  on  the 
one  hand,  mainly  the  fulness  of  life  which  everywhere 


MODERN   TIMES   AGAINST   CHRISTIANITY     43 

wells  up,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  beauty  which 
shines  through  all  the  forms  of  life.  From  such  con- 
victions and  experiences  there  grows  an  ideal  of  a 
harmonious  development  of  the  whole  man ;  and  in 
the  modern  civilised  state,  the  effort  to  adorn  the 
"  here  and  now  "  obtains  a  fast  root,  for  the  natural 
sphere  of  life  drives  ever  forward  new  tasks,  and 
gains  ever  new  energies.  But  notwithstanding  all 
its  independence,  the  new  mode  of  life  does  not  as 
yet  enter  into  a  struggle  with  the  old  mode :  at  the 
height  of  the  Renaissance  both  modes  seem  to  seek 
one  another  more  than  to  flee  from  one  another. 
The  natural  world  is  conceived  as  beautiful  and  in- 
exhaustible because  it  constitutes  the  impress  and 
reflection  of  the  Divine  Life ;  religion,  however, 
receives  its  most  valuable  development  through  in- 
dependent art  which  invests  the  lofty  contour  of 
belief  with  an  intuitive  nearness  and  enchanted 
loveliness.  Thus,  religion  and  artistic  culture  walk 
together  hand  in  hand,  and  the  contradictions  im- 
bedded in  such  a  relationship  were  not  yet  discovered. 
Soon,  however,  the  movement  passes  beyond  such 
a  union,  and  stands  at  last  upon  a  closer  unity  of  life. 
This  step  took  place  at  the  height  of  creativeness  in 
the  time  of  Spinoza.  Its  aim  was  to  bind  together 
God  and  the  world  into  a  unique  indissoluble  reality. 
Since  the  Divine  permeates  the  whole  world  and 
gives  it  a  depth,  the  world  becomes  more  than  its 
immediate  appearance  reveals,  and  transforms  itself 
into  a  kingdom  of  reason  without  any  lacunae.  The 
Godhead,  thus  drawn  into  the  world,  must,  however, 
lay  aside  all  that  is  narrow  and  merely  human,  and 
must  be  conceived  as  beyond  all  the  limits  of  human 


44         THE   UNIVERSAL  CRISIS   IN   RELIGION 

conceptions,  and  must  be  raised  to  an  all-encom- 
passing eternity  and  infinity.  Thus,  religion  can  no 
more  be  a  particular  province  which  governs  existence 
from  a  height  "  beyond,"  but  it  seems  to  fulfil  its 
task  far  better  the  more  it  lays  on  one  side  any  parti- 
cular and  isolated  formations,  and  permeates  all  its 
work  with  invisible  effects.  The  aspects  which  united 
man  with  the  great  All  constituted  here  the  kernel 
of  existence  and  raised  him  to  a  cosmic  life ;  these 
aspects  are  science  and  art  in  the  sense  of  an  ideal 
culture.  These  create,  through  their  world-encom- 
passing thought  and  free-play  of  imagination,  a  new 
kind  of  spiritual  reality  over  against  the  ordinary 
daily  life ;  and,  further,  they  ennoble  all  human 
relations,  and  bestow  the  infinite  and  eternal  upon 
man  in  the  midst  of  his  daily  life.  Indeed,  the  more 
the  reality  transforms  itself  thus  into  a  kingdom  of 
reason,  the  more  raises  itself  a  cosmos  out  of  the 
chaos  of  an  initial  cosmogony,  and  the  more  the  need 
for  any  special  religion  disappears.  Religion  becomes 
now  a  kind  of  finger-post  to  those  to  whom  the 
mental  creativeness  of  science  and  art  is  denied. 
"  He  who  possesses  science  and  art  possesses  also 
religion.  He  who  does  not  possess  them,  he,  too, 
has  religion." 

But,  notwithstanding  its  great  achievements,  this 
pantheistic  ideal  of  culture  has  not  had  a  permanent 
hold  on  humanity.  On  the  one  hand,  its  spiritualisa- 
tion  of  reality  signifies  a  stepping  beyond  experience, 
so  that  experience  could  justify  itself  less  and  less 
with  the  fading  away  of  an  over-world.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  grows  a  stronger  feeling  of  the  mystery 
and  suffering  of  the  world,  which  destroys  the  calm  of 


MODERN   TIMES   AGAINST   CHRISTIANITY     45 

the  pantheistic  view — a  view  which,  in  its  contempla- 
tion of  the  whole  of  things,  left  almost  entirely  on  one 
side  the  unreason  of  particular  phenomena.  But  if 
our  world  is  not  a  realm  of  reason,  it  demands  us  to 
seek  an  explanation  beyond  the  domains  of  pantheism. 
And  thus  the  movement  proceeds  towards  a  powerful 
contraction  of  life  upon  immediate  existence,  upon  a 
development  of  a  natural  culture,  which  forbids  all 
progress,  interpretation,  and  elevation  beyond  the 
realm  of  ordinary  life.  The  kernel  of  such  a  life  is 
built  by  the  empirical  investigation  of  nature,  together 
with  technics  and  the  practical  politics  of  human 
society.  There  originates  then  a  newer  and  more 
secular  type  of  life  with  such  energy  and  self-con- 
sciousness as  have  never  been  hitherto  witnessed. 
Such  a  type  of  life  has  verified  itself  through  un- 
dreamed-of achievements  ;  it  lias  opened  out  a  large 
field  of  new  tasks  which  have  drawn  man  ever  more 
exclusively  into  their  vortex,  and  which  have  busied 
him  almost  breathlessly.  Thus,  life  seems  in  the 
position  to  value  all  the  definite  energy  of  man  and 
to  fulfil  all  his  entitled  hopes.  Hut  the  more  the 
spiritual  activity  binds  itself  to  such  a  reality,  the 
more  shadowy  and  untenable  becomes  each  and  every 
religion.  True,  such  a  secular  culture  can  well  pro- 
claim that  the  circle  of  human  life  constitutes  but  a 
small  segment  of  the  unbounded  reality,  and  that, 
indeed,  with  all  its  extension,  it  belongs  to  a  mere 
superficiality,  yet  behind  all  this  there  lies  and  remains 
inaccessible  a  dark  depth.  Hut  as  such  a  culture  fails 
to  obtain  any  inward  connection  with  such  a  depth,  all 
its  gains  are  of  no  avail  to  religion. 

Thus,  the  movement  of  modern  times  has  moved 


4(i  THE    UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN    RELIGION 

farther  and  farther  from  religion,  and  has  tied  man 
ever  more  securely  to  the  visible  world.  The  union 
of  religion  and  natural  culture  was  followed  by  a 
culture  which  turned  itself  into  a  kind  of  religion, 
and  this  was  followed  finally  by  a  culture  devoid  of 
any  kind  of  religion.  So  that  the  tendency  towards 
the  world  grew  ever  stronger,  and  more  and  more 
such  a  tendency  divested  itself  of  all  super-sensuous 
connections,  but,  at  the  same  time,  it  has  given  man 
far  more  to  do  in  the  realms  of  knowledge  and  action  ; 
and  in  certain  departments  it  has  become  so  rich  in 
content  that  it  seems  to  be  able  to  satisfy  the  whole 
of  life  and  effort. 

Religion,  without  a  doubt,  roots  itself  too  firmly  in 
the  convictions  of  individuals  and  in  the  organisations 
of  society  to  allow  such  consequences  of  material 
culture  to  come  into  full  and  immediate  effect, 
although  nowhere  is  the  centre  of  gravity  of  duration 
more  visible  than  in  these  realms.  For  the  individual 
in  particular,  the  inwardness  of  his  soul  and  the  in- 
finite aspiration  of  his  mind  constitute  a  sanctuary 
to  which  he  flees  out  of  all  the  struggles,  and  from 
which  he  can  hold  forth  his  inner  experience  as  a 
shield  against  all  attacks.  But  this  refuge  of  the 
individual  signifies  no  stronghold  for  all  men.  Not- 
withstanding the  spiritual  content  of  his  life,  man 
remains  bound  to  the  ordinary  situation  of  humanity  ; 
it  is  not  given  to  him  to  set  forth  victoriously  the 
ideals  which  fill  the  depth  of  his  soul  against  culture 
and  civilisation,  so  that  religion  becomes  more  and 
more  a  mere  private  concern — a  mere  ebb  and  flow 
of  a  subjective  kind — which  degenerates  into  the  level 
of  sectarianism  and  the  miraculous.     And,  finally,  all 


MODERN   TIMES   AGAINST   CHRISTIANITY     47 

cautious  restrictions  are  not  able  to  prevent  an  entire 
expiration. 

Can  we  then  wonder  that  the  opponents  of  religion 
consider  that  the  matter  has  been  investigated  and 
decided  ?  To  such  minds  religion  is  upheld  by  idle- 
ness and  dulness  or  even  at  the  best  by  selfish  interest. 
Such  a  total  extinction  of  religion  was  anticipated 
with  certainty  and  in  the  immediate  future  by  the 
main  trend  of  thought  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
Winckelmann  in  1768  could  write  from  Rome  that 
in  fifty  years  there  would  not  be  in  Rome  either  a 
pope  or  a  priest.  Such  an  extinction  of  religion 
which  was  thought  would  take  place  as  a  gradual 
dying  ember,  is,  in  our  day,  aimed  at  through  a  violent 
attempt  at  scattering  doubts  and  denials  amongst 
the  masses. 


PART   I.— THE   UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN   RELIGION 

(Continued) 

CHAPTER   IV 

d.  The  Reconsolidation  of  Religion 

The  priesthood  has  outlasted  its  supposed  appointed 
span  of  time,  and  seems  far  from  vanishing ;  and  re- 
ligion, too,  does  not  exhibit  the  situation  which  its 
opponents  expected.  Though  its  deficiencies  are  seized 
by  ever  wider  circles,  and  though  the  ordinary  disposi- 
tion of  man  does  not  correspond  to  the  atmosphere  of 
spiritual  activity,  yet  on  its  heights,  religion  proves 
itself  again  the  possessor  of  so  much  energy  of  life — 
an  energy  which  seems  on  a  deeper  view  of  it  to  show 
that  the  condemnation  of  religion  is  more  of  an  echo  of 
the  past  than  of  a  promise  of  the  future.  The  Churches 
show  such  a  renewal  of  religion  in  the  most  tangible 
manner.  How  much  has  their  power  grown,  how 
much  more  definitely  have  they  stamped  the  various 
contrasts  and  values  of  things,  and  how  ardently  do 
their  struggles  rouse  the  soul !  True,  such  energy 
has  not  been  limited  to  causes  of  an  inward  character. 
The  democratic  atmosphere  of  the  nineteenth  century 
increased  the  power  of  the  Church  since  it  heightened 
the  power  of  the  masses  who  were  least  affected  by 
culture  and  its  doubts.  Further,  the  severe  concen- 
tration  of  life   and    the   growing   potency    of  great 

48 


THE   RECONSOLIDATION   OF   RELIGION         49 

organisations  have  worked  in  a  similar  direction. 
But  although  such  and  other  changes  explain  much, 
they  do  not  explain  everything — they  do  not  explain 
the  inner  activity,  the  spiritual  creativeness,  and  the 
aspiring  power  of  the  Churches.  And  this  growth 
of  religion  limits  itself  in  no  way  to  the  Churches : 
it  appears,  too,  outside  them  and,  indeed,  in  direct 
opposition  to  them ;  it  forms  a  trait  in  the  life  of  the 
present  which  grows  stronger  and  stronger.  Philo- 
sophy— the  old  enemy  of  religion — applies  itself  most 
ardently  to  create  a  free  place  for  religion ;  literary 
art  treats  with  great  earnestness  the  Yea  and  the 
Nay  of  religious  questions ;  the  fine  arts  seek  to 
approach  religious  forms  through  new  explanatory 
forms  of  modern  discovery  ;  and  finally  the  religious 
problem,  beyond  all  these  particular  provinces, 
proceeds  again  mightily  in  the  soul  itself.  Many 
phenomena  point  to  a  close  affinity  of  our  day 
with  that  antiquity  which  for  the  first  time  raised 
religion  into  a  world-power,  for  in  the  midst  of  all  the 
negation  and  condemnation  a  new  wave  of  religion 
seems  to  rise  and  to  carry  humanity  along  on  its 
breast. 

How  is  this  notable  change  to  be  understood  ?  If 
the  movement  against  religion  has  continued,  and, 
indeed,  has  swelled  out  further  and  further,  the  cause 
of  this  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  counter-effect  to  this 
has  grown,  and  that  religion  has  exhibited  a  stronger 
potency  and  a  deeper  root  in  human  life  than  its 
opponents  had  attributed  to  it.  First  of  all,  it  has, 
upon  a  new  ground,  brought  forth  new  achievements  ; 
it  has,  in  the  midst  of  modern  life,  developed  a  lofty 

benevolence  over  against  the  inflated  moral  and  social 

4 


50         THE    UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN    RELIGION 

ravages  ;  it  has  commanded  a  longed-for  halt  to  many 
individuals  over  against  the  growing  destruction  of 
life.  On  account  of  such  achievements,  the  extin- 
guishing of  religion  can  never  be  regarded  as  a  pure 
gain.  But  however  highly  may  be  regarded  what 
religion  has  brought  forth  in  the  form  of  love  and 
service,  the  main  cause  of  its  vitality  is  not  contained 
in  such  achievements ;  this  main  cause  is  far  more  of 
an  indirect  kind :  it  consists  in  the  most  difficult 
inner  entanglements  of  the  very  spiritual  force  itself 
— entanglements  which  threatened  the  progress  of 
religion ;  it  consists  in  the  upheaval  of  the  belief  in 
the  all-sufficiency  of  modern  self-satisfied  and  self- 
conscious  culture  and  civilisation.  All  wavering  of 
this  belief  works  in  the  direction  of  the  lessening 
of  the  opposition  to  religion ;  indeed,  the  more  the 
doubt  in  culture  and  civilisation  advances,  the  more  is 
the  total  position  of  man  changed ;  new  dispositions 
are  awakened  and  new  avenues  of  life  open  out; 
religion  has  once  more  the  ear  of  humanity  who  had 
temporarily  turned  away  from  it,  and  once  more  it  is 
able  to  prove  what  is  imbedded  in  it  that  is  of  price- 
less value. 

Modern  culture  has  had  to  learn  that  all  life  within 
the  human  domain  is  at  the  same  time  self-energising, 
and  that  self-development  is  simultaneously  self-crea- 
tiveness.  The  advancement  of  life's  own  movement 
placed  it  against  barriers  undreamed  of,  and  drove  it 
into  consequences  unwilled  by  the  individual.  Life 
crosses  beyond  the  point  which  hitherto  had  been 
its  haven  of  refuge,  and  at  each  farther  remove  man 
appears  unable  to  govern  the  current  of  life  and  to 
make  it  a  tributary  of  reason.      What  thus  might  be 


THE   RECONSOLIDATION   OF   RELIGION        51 

a  Whole  of  life,  but  which  through  such  exclusiveness 
is  bound  to  prove  a  deadly  enemy  of  religion,  must 
be  a  mere  piece  of  a  further  life  unless  reason  and 
culture  are  to  fall  to  the  ground. 

The  scientific,  historical,  philosophical  and  social 
modes  of  thought  have  developed  into  systems,  and 
have  made  demands  upon  the  whole  of  life.  But 
the  more  their  achievements,  the  more  does  their 
completion  cease  and  the  more  does  the  denial 
overtop  all ;  the  more  is  the  ground  destroyed 
upon  which  they  have  grown  and  the  more  insuffi- 
cient and  even  unbearable  does  the  whole  situation 
become.  It  is  especially  in  its  relation  to  man  and 
in  connection  with  the  problem  how  to  found  and 
how  to  construct  all  activity  and  work  from  the 
depth  of  the  soul  that  modern  culture  has  miscarried 
in  spite  of  all  its  value.  We  must  now  look  closer 
at  this  fact. 

In  these  systems  there  has  originated  a  mighty 
movement  to  consider  nature  as  the  sole  reality,  and 
man  as  a  mere  product  of  nature.  So  far  as  such  an 
attempt  gains  any  success,  man  becomes  a  piece  of 
a  meaningless  mechanism,  which  moves,  it  is  true, 
according  to  definite  laws ;  he  becomes  altogether 
a  creature  of  his  environment ;  he  is  able  to  maintain 
in  no  manner  a  self-reliance  over  against  the  process 
of  nature,  and  the  life  of  his  soul  must  reconcile  itself 
entirely  to  the  standards  of  nature,  and  is  able  to 
bring  forth  nothing  essentially  new.  Often  has  man 
desired  and  desires  to  day  to  retain  some  old  values 
of  the  more  human  kind  in  the  process  of  the  de- 
8truction  of  I  lie  old  world  of  thought;  and  with  such 
;i   radical  denial  a   kind    of  practical   idealism  seems 


52         THE    UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN    RELIGION 

quite  easily  tenable  :  love  and  humaneness  may  appear 
strengthened  although  they  have  been  founded  upon 
nature  alone  without  the  aid  of  any  metaphysie. 
Whilst  this  is  an  unbearable  halfness  and  even 
thoughtlessness,  it  further  destroys  conceptions  such 
as  character,  deed,  inwardness,  to  their  final  root,  and 
it  has  absolutely  no  place  for  moral  valuation  and 
noble  idealism.  This  appears  specially  clear  in 
the  biological  mode  of  thought,  which  transforms  our 
whole  life  into  a  struggle  for  natural  existence,  and 
subordinates  and  sacrifices  the  good  to  the  useful. 
At  the  same  time,  all  questions  concerning  the 
meaning  of  life  vanish  more  and  more,  and  the  bare 
actuality  of  physical  existence  exclusively  holds  the 
field.  It  may  be  that  the  senselessness  and  soulless- 
ness  of  human  existence  is  hardly  noticed  on  account 
of  the  haste  and  press  of  modern  life,  and  the  loss  is 
hardly  discovered  because  science  itself  has  not  been 
drawn  into  the  same  vicious  circle.  And  the  reason 
is  clear :  a  consistent  naturalism  is  not  able  to  permit 
science  of  any  kind.  Science  is  constructed  through 
the  activity  of  the  human  mind  alone  ;  but  how  could 
the  mind  construct  it  if  its  intellectual  achievements 
spent  themselves  in  a  mere  raising  up  and  accumu- 
lating of  isolated  impressions,  and  if  such  achieve- 
ments never  succeed  in  reaching  a  commanding  view 
of  the  isolated  impressions,  and  still  less  succeed  in 
welding  such  impressions  into  a  Whole  ?  In  reality, 
even  modern  natural  science,  with  its  conquest  over  the 
naive  world-view,  has  become  possible  only  through 
an  energetic  analysis  and  clearing  away  of  the  first 
impressions  of  things,  through  an  advance  towards 
simple  phenomena  and  the  discovery  of  their  laws, 


THE   RECONSOLIDATION   OF   RELIGION         53 

through  the  establishing  of  new  connections  by  the 
aid  of  prior  ideas.  All  this  takes  place  through  the 
observation  of  the  different  behaviour  of  things  on 
the  one  hand,  and  their  natural  relationship  and 
systematic  union  on  the  other  hand.  Thus,  through 
the  work  of  the  mind,  the  path  leads  to  a  scientific 
conception  of  nature.  This  scientific  conception 
could  not  verify  itself  from  the  things  themselves, 
but  the  verification  had  to  be  traced  within  the 
mind  ;  and,  in  the  subjugation  of  the  external  world, 
science  before  all  else  remains  an  inner  result.  Now, 
if  all  inner  result  breaks  away  from  its  inward  source 
— from  independent  inwardness — and  if  life  is  laid 
entirely  upon  its  connection  with  external  things, 
the  result  is  that  science,  and  along  with  it  natural 
science,  must  collapse,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  natural- 
ism with  its  equalisation  of  sensuous  nature  and 
reality  must  be  given  up.  Whenever  effective 
mental  work  found  recognition  in  natural  science, 
especially  where  it  led  to  an  illumination  of  things, 
so  that  the  total  mirroring  of  nature  was  not  some- 
thing given  entirely  from  the  outside  but  something 
brought  forth  from  the  mind,  it  develops  itself  into 
a  critical  mode  of  thought.  Such  a  mode  of  thought 
succeeds  more  and  more  to  win  recognition  upon 
the  summits  of  modern  life,  and  exercises  a  decisive 
resistance  to  the  turning  of  the  reality  into  a  mere 
natural  thing.  And,  at  the  same  time,  the  path  is 
left  open  for  the  formation  of  new  configurations  of 
life ;  and  great  problems,  which  forbid  any  ready- 
made  solution,  awaken. 

Further,    the    historical    treatment   of   things    has 
contributed  towards  the  superiority  and   sovereignty 


54  THE    UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN   RELIGION 

of  thought  and  life.  By  bringing  an  existence  other- 
wise numb  into  motion,  the  historical  treatment  has 
given  life  more  freedom,  movement,  and  richness; 
the  present  has  been  freed  from  the  tyranny  of  the 
past  and  raised  to  an  entire  self-reliance.  The  cul- 
minated transformation  has  entered  so  deeply  into 
life  that  a  simple  retreat  to  the  old  situation  is  now 
absolutely  forbidden.  But  wherever  the  new  mode 
of  thought  holds  exclusively  the  field,  there  issues 
out  of  it  a  destructive  energy.  If  all  stability  in  face 
of  the  flux  of  semblance  gives  way,  all  that  is  solid 
and  durable  melts  away ;  truth  becomes  not  merely 
the  child  of  the  age,  as  of  the  passing  moment,  and 
through  stepping  outside  its  own  nature  becomes  an 
unreality ;  even  the  present  itself,  which  before  all 
else  should  have  been  strengthened,  fades  away, 
whilst  the  course  of  events  resolve  themselves  into 
purely  fleeting  moments.  But  a  life  that  resigns  all 
solid  aims  and  permanent  norms,  and  becomes  the 
mere  play  of  wind  and  wave,  must  more  and  more 
fall  into  shallowness  and  relinquish  all  content.  But 
man  does  not  seem  willing  to  be  merged  in  the  fleeting 
lapse  of  the  moment :  he  holds  himself  inwardly  fast ; 
he  compares  and  questions  different  aims  for  his  life ; 
he  has  no  choice  but  to  differentiate,  select,  and  reject 
things.  Therefore  his  life  cannot  entirely  flow  on 
the  current  of  appearances. 

"  Within  the  hope  of  man  alone 

The  highest  goal  draws  nigh, 
He  chooses,  raises  up  his  soul 

To  that  which  is  on  high  ; 
He  can  duration  to  the  moment  give, 
lie  can  in  Time  the  Eternal  live.11 


THE   RECONSOLIDATION   OF   RELIGION         55 

The  fact  that  man  experiences  all  changes — that 
each  change  is  known  by  consciousness — proves 
that  he  does  not  belong  entirely  to  the  domain  of  flux. 
In  so  far  as  he  in  his  deeper  nature  is  more  than  a 
flux  of  isolated  occurrences,  the  incessant  changes  and 
alternations  cannot  possibly  satisfy  him.  The  nobility 
and  lightheadedness  which  seemed  to  him  at  first  to 
be  a  pure  gain  proceed  from  an  unbearable  empti- 
ness and  mar  the  deepest  life.  For  how  could 
any  kind  of  joyous  expansion  of  life  be  possible  if 
moment  devours  moment  without  ceasing,  if  what  is 
honoured  at  one  moment  is  thrown  on  one  side  the 
next  moment  ?  The  nineteenth  century  has  dis- 
covered how  unbearable  such  a  view  of  things  is, 
for  ideal  succeeded  ideal  with  amazing  rapidity, 
disposition  succeeded  disposition  with  the  reversal  of 
fortune,  and  the  duration  of  alleged  truths  became 
shorter  and  shorter.  But  in  the  midst  of  all  this 
the  aspiration  after  a  consolidation  of  life  and  after 
a  durable  truth  became  ever  stronger,  and  the 
opposition  became  more  decisive  against  the  immer- 
sion of  the  whole  of  human  existence  in  the  stream 
of  historical  life.  Such  a  turn  leaves  no  doubt  in 
regard  to  the  fact  that  history  itself  is  more  than  a 
lucre  result  of  the  succession  of  events.  History  is 
far  more  an  elevation  above  the  changes  of  occur- 
rences— a  commanding  view  of  things,  connections  of 
things,  a  judgment  of  the  manifold  material,  a  raising 
of  pre-eminent  aims.  So  that  it  is  discovered  that 
history,  viewed  from  the  point  of  view  of  mind  and 
spirit,  is  a  portion  of  a  further  total-life,  and,  conse- 
quently, there  is  no  such  thing  possible  as  "mere" 
history,  for    history,   in  so  far  as  it  is  recognised  in 


56         THE    UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN    RELIGION 

its  deeper  meaning,  includes  a  confession  of  such  a 
further  total-life.  The  exclusiveness  of  history  with 
its  alleged  relativity  destroys  the  meaning  of  history 
itself.  And  if  we  are  not  to  give  up  the  meaning 
of  history,  it  is  necessary  to  rise  above  it,  and  to 
take  up  once  more,  in  some  kind  of  way,  eternal 
truths.  Such  a  course  does  not  lead  directly  to 
religion,  but,  at  the  same  time,  it  shows  the  toil 
for  eternal  truth  in  a  very  different  light  from  the 
ordinary  mode  of  looking  at  things. 

An  entire  change  has  taken  place  in  another  main 
point.  The  "immanent"  method  of  consideringhistory, 
with  its  expulsion  of  superhuman  aids,  has  brought 
forth  a  powerful  heightening  of  human  existence  and 
human  potency.     Man  himself  has  accordingly  to  pre- 
pare his  domain  of  life,  and  to  find  his  highest  aim 
in   the   adornment  of  this  domain ;   now  he   has   to 
stimulate  all  that  is  included  within  human  energy 
into  the  greatest  achievements  ;  and  now  for  the  first 
time  he  seems  to  stand  fast  within  his   own  world. 
It  cannot  be  measured  how  much  such  a  conviction 
has    brought   forth.       The   awakening   of  individual 
lives  was  followed  by  the  awakening  of  the  masses. 
Whilst  all  formations  of  relationships  were  drawn  and 
measured  directly  from  the  actual  situation  of  man, 
more  joy  and  freedom,  more  care  for  others  and  more 
humaneness  entered  into  life  ;  and,  further,  the  pro- 
vince of  thought  gained  in  clearness  because  it  was 
developed    psychologically  from   the   immediate   ex- 
perience of  consciousness.    But  here  again  the  affirma- 
tion soon  passes  into  a  negation,  and  a  shrinkage  soon 
appears  in  the  emancipation.     To  abolish  all  invisible 
ties  and  connections  may  appear  as  a  pure  gain  so  long 


THE   RECONSOLIDATION   OF   RELIGION         57 

as  man  continued  to  idealise  unconsciously,  and  so  long 
as  the  consciousness  contained  something  of  its  earlier 
greatness  and  values.  But  such  idealisation  was 
more  and  more  extinguished  before  the  impressions  of 
experience.  Humanity  does  not  find  the  ideal  of 
brotherhood  so  easily  realised  as  it  had  expected,  but 
finds  more  and  more  divisions  of  individuals,  parties, 
and  nations ;  the  impulses,  emotions,  and  passions  of 
human  nature  develop  deeper  and  wider  ;  the  tyranny 
of  the  petty  common  life  becomes  more  and  more 
brutal ;  and  more  and  more  we  are  threatened  with 
the  death  of  the  Spiritual  Life.  Have  not  men, 
viewed  from  within,  become  smaller  and  smaller, 
because  they  value  nothing  other  than  themselves  ? 
And,  at  the  same  time,  when  it  is  discovered  that 
the  whole  man  even  in  his  spiritual  efforts  is  tied  to 
human  impulses  with  all  their  pettiness  and  assertions, 
and  that  all  possibility  of  a  counter-effect — of  a  voca- 
tion in  the  highest  and  final  court  of  appeal — vanishes, 
and  when  judgment  over  the  true  and  the  false,  over 
good  and  evil,  is  surrendered  to  the  opinions  and 
inclinations  of  individuals  and  masses,  it  becomes 
evident  why  wrath  and  even  hatred  burn  against  the 
pretence  of  mere  modern  culture ;  and  in  order  to 
preserve  a  genuine  spiritual  culture  nothing  seems 
more  necessary  than  an  unrelenting  struggle  against 
such  petty  and  presumptuous  culture  which  reduces 
life  to  a  lamentable  level,  and  which  destroys  all 
genuine  values.  In  order  to  possess  such  values  man 
lias  to  work  his  way  up  to  something  something 
which  he  has  to  acknowledge  beyond  and  above  him- 
self, and  yet  though  beyond  and  above  him  is  yet  not 
alien  to  him.     This  leads  once  more  to  the  problem 


58         THE   UNIVERSAL  CRISIS   IN   RELIGION 

which  religion  has  taken  up  from  of  yore,  and  he  who 
places  on  one  side  the  solution  which  religion  offers 
will  think  otherwise  when  he  comes  to  realise  the  true 
nature  of  the  problem. 

And,  further,  the  expulsion  of  all  the  inwardness 
of  the  Spiritual  Life — the  transformation  of  our  entire 
nature  into  an  impersonal  process  of  culture  and 
civilisation — turns  a  pure  gain  into  a  serious  loss. 
The  immediate  neutrality  of  man  became  too  small 
for  the  content  of  the  work  of  culture,  and  through 
such  labours  our  existence  has  grown  immeasurably 
in  width  and  truth.  And  it  is  from  a  kind  of 
necessity  that  the  attention  of  the  subject  upon  him- 
self was  abandoned,  and  life  was  laid  entirely  in  the 
relationship  to  external  things.  But  this  complexity 
of  work  which  had  now  become  the  main  fact — 
indeed,  of  the  Spiritual  Life  itself — needs  an  inner 
connection  and  an  animated  unity,  for  otherwise  it 
cannot  possibly  construct  a  Whole  and  work  as  a 
Whole.  But  the  more  the  inward  and  personal 
element  is  pushed  aside  without  some  kind  of  com- 
pensation in  its  place,  the  more  all  characteristic  and 
inspiring  energy  slips  away,  the  more  each  totality 
loses  its  inner  unity  and  animation,  and  becomes  a 
mere  piece  of  mechanism  which  may  be  of  value  in 
subduing  the  external  world  and  in  calling  forth 
certain  exertions.  But  all  this  fails  to  unite  man 
with  a  Whole  and  to  raise  him  as  a  AVhole,  and 
also  it  inevitably  decays  and  fails  to  engender  a  new 
world  of  intrinsic  value.  Thus,  the  impersonal  work 
of  culture  and  civilisation  threatens  to  become 
mechanical  from  its  very  centre  outwards.  No 
growth  of  inner  potency  corresponds  to  the  increase 


THE   RECONSOLIDATION   OF   RELIGION         59 

of  work,  and  expansion  by  far  outweighs  concentra- 
tion ;  man  becomes  more  and  more  the  slave  of  his 
work  and  a  bundle  of  isolated  accomplishments. 
But  the  work  itself,  through  its  severance  from  the 
centre  of  life,  loses  all  its  soul.  Can  we  deny  that 
the  last  decade  has  placed  such  dangers  under  our 
very  eyes  ?  At  the  same  time,  a  kind  of  compulsion 
raises  the  questions  whether  ultimately  the  soul  of 
life  has  to  be  abandoned,  whether  the  emergence  of 
conceptions  of  inwardness  above  the  old  forms  and 
beyond  mere  subjectivity  is  possible,  whether  a 
coherent  and  superior  unity  may  through  a  great 
struggle  be  obtained  within  the  Spiritual  Life  itself. 
If  the  latter  happened,  it  would  effect  an  entire 
transformation  of  life,  and  that  would  lead  back, 
certainly  not  to  the  old  situation  of  religion,  but 
still  to  the  problems  of  religion. 

We  are  thus  experiencing  to-day  a  remarkable 
entanglement.  The  older  forms  of  life,  which  had 
hitherto  governed  history  and  its  meaning,  became 
too  narrow,  petty,  and  subjective  for  human  nature. 
Through  emancipation  from  an  easy-going  subject- 
ivity and  through  the  positing  of  life  upon  external 
tilings  and,  indeed,  upon  the  whole  of  the  great 
universe,  life,  it  was  believed,  would  gain  more 
breadth  and  truth  ;  and  in  a  noteworthy  manner  man 
undertook  a  struggle  against  the  pettiness  of  his  own 
nature  and  for  the  driving  out  of  all  that  was  petty- 
human.  A  great  deal  has  been  gained  through  such 
a  change  and  new  tendency  of  life.  In  fact  we  have 
discovered  far  more  than  we  had  hoped  for.  But,  at 
the  same  time,  we  have  lost  something,  a  loss  which 
at  the  outset    brings    forth    no  anxiety,    but    which, 


60         THE   UNIVERSAL  CRISIS  IN   RELIGION 

however,  through  painful  experience,  proves  itself  to 
have  been  "  the  one  thing  needful."  Through  its 
own  development  the  work  has  destroyed  its  own 
carriers ;  it  has  undermined  the  very  ground  upon 
which  it  stood ;  it  has  failed,  notwithstanding  its 
infinite  expansion,  through  its  loss  of  a  fundamental 
and  unifying  Life-process ;  and  in  the  entire  immer- 
sion of  man  into  activity  his  deepest  being  has  been 
lost.  Indeed,  the  more  exclusively  life  transforms 
itself  into  mere  external  work,  the  more  it  ceases  to 
be  an  inner  personal  existence,  and  the  more  alien  we 
become  to  ourselves.  And  yet  the  fact  that  we  are 
able  to  be  conscious  of  such  an  alienation — an  aliena- 
tion that  we  cannot  accept  indifferently  but  is  ex- 
perienced as  an  irreparable  loss — is  a  proof  that  more 
is  firmly  implanted  in  us  than  the  modern  direction 
of  life  is  able  to  develop  and  satisfy.  We  acknow- 
ledge simultaneously  that  we  have  gained  much  but 
that  the  loss  is  a  painful  one.  We  have  gained  the 
world  but  we  have  lost  the  soul,  and,  along  with  this, 
the  world  threatens  to  bring  us  into  nought,  and  to 
take  away  our  only  secure  foothold  in  the  midst  of 
the  stormy  roaring  torrent  of  material  work. 

This  danger  was  not  realised  so  long  as  modern 
ideas  failed  in  precision  of  expression,  and  so  long  as 
life  without  any  hesitation  supplied  itself  from  the 
old  sources  of  thought  and  experience.  Indeed, 
the  more  an  immanent  and  impersonal  culture  and 
civilisation  were  posited  upon  their  own  energy,  the 
more  that  universal  dialectic  which  the  experience  of 
humanity  has  often  witnessed  reveals  itself.  Systems 
of  thought  and,  indeed,  ideal  worlds  either  destroy 
one  another  or  rail  in  their  gained  domains  ;  evolution 


THE    RECONSOLIDATION   OF   RELIGION         61 

itself  shows  limits ;  but  the  discovery  of  the  limits 
leads  to  new  tendencies — to  tendencies  in  the  main 
thesis.  In  the  meantime,  however,  there  arises  a 
painful  situation,  as  modern  man  with  growing 
consciousness  has  discovered.  Men  have  drifted  from 
the  old  moorings,  and  the  new  ones  which  promised 
the  highest  happiness  do  not  satisfy.  They  are 
conscious  of  a  poverty  in  an  overflowing  kingdom, 
conscious  of  an  absence  of  a  real  substance  in  the 
midst  of  incessant  activity,  and  have  discovered  in 
the  midst  of  incessant  joy  and  pleasure  the  absence 
of  genuine  happiness.  Is  it  to  be  wondered  that 
desire  and  anxiety  should  turn  again  home  towards 
the  whole  of  life,  and  that  the  question  concerning 
the  inner  clarification  of  life  should  place  on  one  side 
all  other  questions  and  reduce  them  to  subsidiary 
facts ;  and  that  the  possibility  of  an  inner  elevation 
of  human  nature — of  a  self-maintenance  in  the  midst 
of  a  threatening  destruction  of  life — should  become 
the  most  weighty  of  all  concerns  ?  And  through 
such  a  revolution  in  the  tendency  and  character  of 
life,  the  ancient  puzzles  of  human  existence,  hushed 
up  in  earlier  times,  raise  themselves  once  more  with 
lively  and  crude  energy— problems  concerning  the 
deep  darkness  which  veils  our  Whence  and  Whither, 
our  dependence  upon  strange  powers,  the  painful  anti- 
thesis within  our  own  soul,  the  stubborn  barriers  to 
our  spiritual  potencies,  the  flaws  in  love  and  righteous- 
ness in  nature  and  in  human  nature  ;  in  a  word,  the 
apparent  total  loss  of  what  we  dare  not  renounce— 
our  best  and  most  real  treasures.  Hut  we  are  now 
experiencing  what  mankind  has  so  often  experienced, 
i.e.    that  at  the  very  point  where  the  negation   had 


68         THE    UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN    RELIGION 

reached  its  climax  and  the  danger  had  reached  the 
very  brink  of  a  precipice,  the  conviction  dawns  with 
axiomatic  certainty  that  there  lives  and  stirs  within 
us  something  which  all  obstacles  and  enmity  can 
never  destroy,  and  which  signifies  against  all  opposi- 
tion a  kernel  of  our  nature  that  can  never  get  lost. 
And  if  the  call  to  us  is  heard  in  no  domain  more 
powerfully  than  in  the  domain  of  religion  to  return 
home  to  the  unassailable  foundation  of  our  being,  and 
to  make  that  which  we  dare  not  renounce  our 
conscious  possession,  then  the  message  of  religion 
acquires  a  totally  different  meaning.  Then  religion 
appears  no  more  as  a  creation  of  childish  fancy  or  a 
flight  into  some  far  and  alien  world,  but  as  an  indis- 
pensable helper  of  man  in  the  difficult  and  seemingly 
impossible  struggle  for  a  spiritual  self — for  a  soul 
and  meaning  of  life.  Consequently  there  rises  once 
more,  after  a  long  brow-beaten  period,  an  aspiration 
after  fundamental  depths  and  inner  connections, 
after  eternal  truth  and  infinite  love ;  and  in  the 
midst  of  all  the  welter  of  our  day  a  new  wave  of  life 
universal  appears  which  carries  man  into  entirely 
other  bearings,  and  which  is  a  flowing  tide  that 
heralds  the  inauguration  of  a  better  day. 


PART  I.— THE  UNIVERSAL  CRISIS  IN  RELIGION 

(Continued) 

CHAPTER    V 

(e)  The  Explanation  of  the  Developing 

Tendency 

He  who  understands  the  religious  problem  in  the 
sense  already  referred  to  is,  in  his  treatment  of  the 
problem,  pressed  into  a  definite  course  of  decision 
between  Nay  and  Yea.  That  decadent  mode  of 
thought  which,  from  grounds  of  utility,  recommends 
a  return  to  the  old  form  of  religion  will  appeal  least 
of  all  to  him.  Modern  culture,  we  hear  so  often 
to-day,  has  become  entirely  bankrupt ;  human  society 
needs  for  its  subsistence  and  development  moral 
consolidation  and  energetic  cohesion,  and  nothing 
other  than  a  religion  of  authority  is  able  to  furnish 
this  ;  then  there  is  nothing  remaining  but  to  return  to 
such  a  religion,  to  bend  willingly  before  its  authority 
-perchance  to  Rome — and  to  accept  the  traditional 
confession  as  the  best  doctrine  concerning  tilings  which 
are  under  lock  and  key  to  the  human  intellect. 

The  way  in  which  the  awakening  of  religion  is  to 
take  place,  in  our  view  of  the  matter,  contradicts  such 
a  mode  of  thought,  in  I  he  most  definite  manner.  To 
religion  belongs  an  aspiration  which  urges  man  to  a 
great  depth  and  resoluteness  of  life,  to  a  self-reliance 


64-         THE    UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN   RELIGION 

over  against  the  imbroglio  of  the  world  and  to  an 
elevation  above  the  petty-human  bustle  of  life.  Man 
is  able  to  experience  and  live  a  Higher  and  Nobler 
within  his  own  nature,  and  to  overcome  an  alien  and 
even  an  envious  world.  And  here  again  a  utilitarian 
mode  of  thought  draws  him  into  his  petty-human 
bustle  and  turns  religion  into  a  mere  tool  for  his 
material  welfare,  and  consequently  what  enters  into 
man's  nature  is  perceived  as  a  half-truth,  whilst  human 
nature  at  its  deepest  thirsts  for  genuine  truth.  How 
high  does  even  the  honourable  atheist  stand  above 
such  a  mode  of  thinking ! 

It  could  not  happen  otherwise  than  that  the  know- 
ledge of  the  limits  of  the  New  should  occasion  the 
return  of  many  minds  to  the  Old  and  to  hold  fast 
to  it.  But  the  present  crisis  of  religion  has  in  reality 
altered  our  standpoint  to  the  Old.  But  still  the  Old 
comes  nearer  to  us  when  we  recognise  in  it  necessary 
problems  whose  meanings  have  not  as  yet  been  shown 
in  the  New.  But  this  does  not  warrant  a  justification 
for  a  simple  return  to  the  Old.  The  newer  culture 
has  cut  too  deep  a  chasm  between  the  past  and 
ourselves  to  make  a  return  possible.  And  we  have 
to  be  on  the  guard  against  underestimating  the 
value  of  the  New  for  the  whole  of  life,  because  as  yet 
it  does  not  mean  all  to  us,  and  because  it  does  not 
immediately  suffice  for  the  inmost  source  of  life. 
For  the  penetrating  and  transforming  effects  of  the 
New  are  found  in  full  currency,  and  in  no  manner 
has  the  New  brought  forth  no  more  than  a  number 
of  particular  results  which  sagacity  and  dexterity 
dovetailed  into  the  empty  spaces  of  traditional  ideas, 
but  it  has  changed  the  fundamental  process  of  life 


EXPLANATION    OF   DEVELOPING   TENDENCY     65 

itself.  The  gain  in  clearness  and  breadth  through 
natural  science,  in  earnestness  through  history,  in 
other  essentials  through  philosophy  and  criticism,  will 
never  be  rescinded  ;  and  on  account  of  such  changes 
we  are  obliged  to  view  the  New  in  a  different  light, 
and  are  no  longer  able  to  adopt  the  simpleminded- 
ness  of  our  forefathers.  Re-fitting  and  patching  are 
always  anachronisms,  and  nowhere  more  so  than  in 
this  province. 

Further,  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  the  present- 
day  expansion  and  struggles  affect  not  only  the  con- 
tent of  religion,  but  also  its  position  in  the  whole 
of  life.  It  is  on  the  ground  of  Christianity  that 
religion  constructs,  for  the  first  time,  a  Whole  or, 
termed  otherwise,  the  one  worthful  kernel  of  the 
Spiritual  Life,  and  all  the  other  provinces  of  life  had 
no  other  problem  than  to  lead  into  this  kernel.  In 
the  Middle  Ages  the  various  provinces  gained  more 
ground,  but  they  still  remained  under  the  guardian- 
ship of  religion.  Protestantism,  however,  brings  to 
a  consummation  a  cleavage  between  culture  and 
religion.  Neither  of  these  possibilities  satisfies  us  to- 
day :  a  mere  religious  life  has  become  too  narrow  for 
us,  and  a  mere  parallelism  of  religion  and  culture  can 
at  the  best  be  no  more  than  a  transitory  phase,  and 
cannot  mean  a  final  conclusion.  Thus,  there  originates 
here  a  difficult  problem,  which  no  return  to  an  old 
extinct  mode  of  thought  can  solve. 

Though  the  newer  culture  appears  as  an  enemy, 
or  at  least  as  an  uncomfortable  critic,  of  religion,  its 
effects  in  no  way  turn  out  to  be  a  danger  and  a  detri- 
ment, but  far  more  are  able  to  further  the  clarification, 
emancipation,  and  extension  of  life,  as  such  effects  place 


66         THE   UNIVERSAL  CRISIS   IN    RELIGION 

new  problems  in  front  of  themselves,  and  forge  a 
new  energy  for  the  solution  of  such  problems.  The 
earlier  configuration  of  religion — formed  in  a  weary 
and  evanescent  age — entered  into  danger,  for  in  its 
anxiety  for  the  suffering  of  mankind  the  fostering  of 
its  own  active  conduct  was  weakened,  and  its  own 
actions  were  forgotten  in  the  midst  of  its  perpetual 
submissive  mood.  It  is  a  justifiable  aspiration  of 
modern  times  that  religion  should  develop  more  and 
more  in  the  direction  of  the  ennobling  of  work,  of 
the  awakening  of  a  new  courage  of  life,  of  an  inner 
elevation  of  all  the  provinces  of  activity  ;  it  is  an  aspira- 
tion that  religion  should  not  only  teach  man  to  think 
little  of  himself,  but  also  reveal  to  him  the  great- 
ness of  his  nature.  The  old  mode  of  viewing  things, 
through  its  sole  dwelling  on  the  salvation  of  the  indi- 
vidual, has  pushed  largely  the  question  of  the  vindi- 
cation of  the  Spiritual  Life  into  the  background  ;  it 
looked  too  much  upon  the  life  of  man  as  something 
ready-made  and  not  as  something  that  is  ever  a 
"  becoming  "  ;  and  all  this  has  happened  because  this 
old  mode  of  thought  could  not  return  from  its  abode 
of  seclusion  and  calm  to  the  present  actual  world  in 
order  to  impregnate  it  with  a  new  spirit. 

In  the  midst  of  such  great  changes,  religion  can 
only  come  to  grief  if  the  new  ascending  movement  is 
fastened  entirely  to  the  old  form,  and  if  the  old  form 
is  represented  as  being  immutable  in  all  its  essentials. 
The  representatives  of  religion  carry  such  a  procedure 
easily  into  a  mistrust  of  the  least  scientific  exactness 
and  even  of  veracity,  whilst,  at  the  same  time,  they 
gloss  over  obvious  difficulties.  By  removing  contra- 
dictions out  of  sight,  uncertain  probabilities  are  made 


EXPLANATION   OF   DEVELOPING   TENDENCY     67 

to  appear  as  certain  realities ;  this  most  shallow  mode 
of  thinking  receives  through  this  a  kind  of  relief  in 
that  it  is  championing  the  casting  out  of  incontestable 
truths.  Religion  will  never  gain  the  indispensable 
simplicity  for  far-reaching  effects,  never  the  inward 
immediacy  and  the  victorious  energy  of  conviction 
if  it  binds  the  present  rigidly  to  the  past,  if  it  does 
not  speak  to  us  in  the  feelings,  conceptions,  and  even 
words  of  our  own  day.  If  so  much  that  belongs 
to  the  older  configuration  of  religion  has  become 
anthropomorphic  and  even  mythological  and  magical, 
are  we  to  ignore  such  a  state  of  things,  and  dare  we 
ignore  it  when  the  real  true  interest  of  religion 
itself  is  at  stake  ? 

Many  who  have  relinquished  a  rigid  clinging  to  the 
Old  seek  to  escape  from  the  difficulty  by  conceiving 
of  religion,  separated  as  it  is  to  them  from  culture,  as 
a  pure  inwardness  of  the  individual  feeling,  and  con- 
sequently they  strive  to  transform  religion  entirely 
into  a  personal  conviction  and  sentiment.  In  this 
manner  they  believe  themselves  able  to  verify  and 
develop  energetically  the  distinctive  characteristic 
features  of  religion.  Through  such  a  notion,  all  the 
contradictions  of  the  work  of  the  world  do  not  touch 
religion  because  it  rules  securely  and  calmly  within  its 
own  domain.  Without  a  doubt,  much  freshness  of 
life,  enthusiasm,  and  joyous  labour  have  issued  from 
such  a  mode  of  religion,  and  it  pulsates  with  great 
power  in  the  character  of  our  age.  We  shall  have  to 
occupy  ourselves  with  this  movement  in  the  whole  of 
this  book,  so  that  for  the  moment  we  can  place  its 
discussion  on  one  side.  At  present  we  only  indicate 
briefly  wherein  the  religious  crisis,  notwithstanding  its 


68         THE    UNIVERSAL  CRISIS    IN    RELIGION 

recognition  of  the  turn  towards  the  purely  human 
mode  of  formation,  compels  us  to  conceive  it  as  an 
anomaly.  The  pure  subjectivity  to  which  the 
tendency  turns  from  the  embroilment  of  culture  as 
to  an  indestructible  and  even  unassailable  citadel  is 
not  so  secure  and  certain  as  it  is  supposed  to  be. 
Our  consideration  of  the  matter  has  already  shown  us 
that  modern  culture  values  subjective  inwardness  not 
as  a  main  but  as  a  secondary  phenomenon — as  an 
accompanying  phenomenon — and,  further,  that  it  con- 
siders all  life  developed  on  such  lines  not  as  the  entire 
truth,  but  only  as  a  circle  of  subjective  stimulation  and 
imagination.  Such  an  inwardness  can  corroborate  its 
rights,  free  itself  from  a  vacillating  sentimentalism, 
and  prove  itself  the  kernel  of  reality,  only  through  its 
energetic  union  with  the  work  of  the  modern  world, 
only  through  the  gain  of  an  immanent  and  impersonal 
culture.  In  order  to  obtain  this,  such  inwardness 
strikes  more  and  more  into  the  deep,  and  gains  more 
extensive  connections.  This  it  is  able  to  do  only 
through  the  turn  to  a  MetupJnjsic — a  Metaphysic  not 
of  the  Schools  but  of  life.  Through  this  the  inward- 
ness will  experience  a  clarifying  and  a  winnowing  ;  all 
mere  sentimental  pathos  must  be  stripped  off,  and  a 
firmer  substance  must  be  won.  The  immediacy  of  the 
first  impressions  of  things  is  not  the  genuine  immediacy 
of  spiritual  ereativeness  and  original  depth,  for  all 
the  latter  has  to  be  worked  out. 

And,  simultaneously  with  this,  culture  becomes 
for  us  something  quite  other  than  such  a  subjectiv- 
ism. And  now,  with  all  our  energy,  we  fight  against 
the  splitting  of  life  into  subjective  religion  on  the  one 
hand,  and  into  soulless    culture   on  the  other  hand. 


EXPLANATION   OF   DEVELOPING   TENDENCY     69 

Culture  as  a  work  in  the  world  is  by  no  means  a  mere 
external  side  of  life  ;  it  belongs  to  our  nature,  and  has 
even  in  modern  times  affected  deeply  the  configura- 
tion of  total-life,  whilst  it  has  given  life  more  clearness 
and  has  penetrated  beyond  mere  subjectivity.  So 
that  a  renewal  of  life  is  of  benefit  to  culture  in  the 
whole  of  its  ramifications,  and  thus  the  problem  reaches 
beyond  mere  religion  into  the  whole  of  our  being. 

The  advocates  of  subjectivism  as  well  as  those  of  the 
old  mode  of  thought,  in  spite  of  all  their  differences, 
agree  in  their  undervaluation  of  the  present-day  crisis 
in  religion.    This  crisis  deals  not  only  with  the  position 
of  religion  in  life,  but  also  with  the  fundamental  process 
of  life  itself.     Hardly  at  any  period  in  human  history 
has  the  upheaval  gone  so  deep ;  and  such  a  struggle 
which  calls  mankind  to  a  revaluation  of  its  positions 
and  possessions  has  rarely  been  witnessed  as  is  wit- 
nessed to-day.     An  old  form  of  life  has  proved  itself, 
on  account  of  the  work  of  the  centuries,  as  being  too 
petty,  narrow  and   subjective,  and  yet   such  a  form 
seems  to  contain  an  imperishable  nucleus  which  we 
dare  not  renounce  without  encountering  the  severest 
of  losses.    The  new  mode  of  thought  which  arose  over 
against  the  old  one  has,  through  its  breadth,  earnest- 
ness, and    energy  so    completely  mastered    us   as  to 
render  a  retreat  to  the  old  mode  simply  impossible. 
Hut   the  new  mode  brings  ever  clearer  to  the  surface 
flaws  perceived  in  the  solid  nucleus  and  in  the  secure 
foundation  ;  thus  it  is  full  of  inner  problems,  and  we 
cannot  possibly  enter  into  agreement  unceremoniously 
with  it.     Now  one  mode  hems  in  the  other,  and  yet  is 
not  able  to  dislodge    this  other,  still  less  are  we  to 
expect  both  to  flow  amicably  together  on  the  current 


70         THE   UNIVERSAL   CRISIS   IN    RELIGION 

of  compromise.  Consequently,  we  witness  the  one 
tearing  the  other  through  the  collision ;  we  observe 
the  disaster  reaching  ever  deeper  into  the  most 
original  qualities  ;  and  the  possession  which  is  common 
to  all  breaking  up  in  pieces.  At  an  earlier  time  we 
had  wrestled  with  the  truths  of  morality,  of  religion, 
of  a  world-view,  in  order  to  draw  nearer  to  such 
realities,  but  now  the  truths  themselves  have  become 
matters  of  dispute,  and  consequently  we  find  ourselves 
contradicting  ourselves  and  carried  to  the  most  pointed 
opposites.  When  we  reflect,  however,  on  the  whole 
of  life,  we  are  able  to  discover  a  painful  uncertainty  : 
our  spiritual  existence  floats  in  mid-air  without  any 
means  of  support,  and  our  fundamental  relationship 
to  reality  has  fallen  into  entire  uncertainty.  There- 
fore, a  struggle  for  the  whole  of  life  and  for  a  new 
man  has  become  necessary.  This  struggle  has  to 
be  led  not  only  by  religion,  but  also  by  the  other 
provinces  of  life — by  art,  philosophy,  etc.  True,  each 
province  has,  as  in  the  case  of  religion,  its  special 
problem  and  its  special  way  of  attacking  its  problem, 
but  it  is  a  condition  of  success  in  connection  with  each 
province  that  the  Whole  should  be  recognised  as  in- 
wardly present  in  the  particular,  and  that  this  Whole 
withstands  every  kind  of  dissolution,  contraction,  and 
torpor.  The  problem  of  religion  is  only  a  segment — 
probably  the  most  important  segment — of  a  more 
general  problem — of  the  problem  concerning  the 
struggle  for  a  spiritual  existence,  for  the  duration, 
content,  and  meaning  of  life  ;  and  the  problem  of 
religion  dare  not  sever  itself  from  all  this. 

It   must   produce  discomfort   to  the  adherents  of 
religion  and,  indeed,  it  may  produce  deep  depression 


EXPLANATION   OF  DEVELOPING  TENDENCY     71 

of  spirit  to  see  that  which  forms,  for  the  personal 
conviction,  the  most  steadfast  security  and  the 
highest  good  of  life  treated  by  science  as  an  open 
problem.  But  this  is  once  more  our  destiny  that  in 
connection  with  the  fundamental  questions  of  life 
what  appears  as  our  most  secure  possession,  and  what 
in  reality  carries  along  incessantly  our  spiritual  exist- 
ence, should  have  to  be  won  ever  anew  for  our 
own  conviction,  and  should  have  to  be  strengthened 
through  spontaneous  decision.  Though  the  indi- 
vidual may  withdraw  from  this  task,  human  nature 
is  not  able  to  do  so.  Religion  in  particular  may 
protest  against  all  such  distressing  fears :  religion  is 
either  merely  a  sanctioned  product  of  human  wishes 
and  of  pictorial  ideas  brought  about  by  tradition  and 
the  historical  ordinance — and,  if  so,  no  art,  power 
or  cunning  can  prevent  the  destruction  of  such  a 
bungling  work  by  the  advancement  of  the  mental 
and  the  spiritual  movement  of  the  world  ;  or  religion 
is  founded  upon  a  superhuman  fact — and,  if  so,  the 
hardest  assault  cannot  shatter  it,  but  far  more,  it  must 
finally  prove  of  service  in  all  the  troubles  and  toils  of 
man,  it  must  reach  the  point  of  its  true  strength  and 
develop  purer  and  purer  its  eternal  truth. 


Part   II. — -The   Fundamental   Basis  of 
Universal   Religion 

INTRODUCTION 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  problem  of  religion 
arises  out  of  a  vast  crisis  in  the  total  existence  of 
life.  The  old  form  of  life,  which  hitherto  had  marked 
all  aspiration,  became  too  narrow  and  subjective  for  a 
general  expansion  of  our  existence  and  of  activity  in 
the  various  provinces  of  knowledge.  On  the  one 
hand,  the  new  life  which  issued  out  of  the  transforma- 
tion of  activity  had  no  fixed  centre  and  consequently 
threatened  to  vanish  into  emptiness.  That  we  are 
able  to  discover  the  contradiction  and  reflect  on  both 
sides  of  the  antithesis  may  undoubtedly  be  held  as  a 
sign  that  our  inmost  nature  in  some  kind  of  way  is 
able  to  rise  above  the  cleavage ;  but  evidently  the 
upheaval  is  much  too  deep  for  us  to  conceive  and 
vivify  without  a  great  transformation  and  even  a 
revolution  of  our  nature.  We  therefore  find  our- 
selves in  the  midst  of  a  great  conflict  for  the  whole 
of  life,  and  are  necessarily  pressed  to  the  problem 
whether  religion  can  and  must  come  to  our  aid  in 
order  to  reconsolidate  our  spiritual  existence,  and 
whether  it  is  possible  to  become  the  possessors  of  a 
reality    superior  to  the   world,    enclosed   within    the 

72 


INTRODUCTION  73 

living  present  to  consciousness,  and  which,  if  found, 
renders  possible  such  a  striving  after  a  content  and 
meaning  of  life.  If,  therefore,  the  problem  of 
religion  arises  out  of  the  Whole  of  life,  it  will 
mean  that  such  a  religion  alone  as  flows  again 
into  the  Whole  is  able  to  bring  satisfaction.  Thus, 
when  we  turn  to  the  particular  province,  we  must 
constantly  bear  in  mind  the  reality  of  the  Whole. 
But  such  a  conviction  involves  particular  methodic 
requirements,  and,  in  particular,  it  carries  us  at  the 
outset  over  the  antithesis,  which  runs  through  the 
ages,  of  a  derivation  of  religion  from  the  intellect 
and  the  world  on  the  one  hand,  and  from  the 
particular  experiences  of  man  in  feeling  or  will  on 
the  other  hand.  What  here  first  of  all  appears  as 
a  bare  diversity  of  method  is  in  reality  a  struggle 
for  the  content  of  religion  itself;  for  the  differ- 
ences in  the  proofs  correspond  to  differences  in 
the  religions,  and  the  proofs  only  carry  out,  in 
each  case,  what  was  at  bottom  already  decided 
by  the  choice  of  this  or  that  kind  of  proof. 
Thus,  in  these  considerations  it  is  not  merely 
the  path  to  religion  but  religion  itself  that  stands 
in  question. 

In  earlier  times,  indeed  already  since  the  time 
of  the  Greeks,  the  evolution  of  religion  proceeded 
by  placing  the  emphasis  on  the  side  of  thought. 
At  the  height  of  this  development  the  endeavour 
signified  no  mere  reflection  on  the  world  an  attempt 
to  conclude  to  a  supra-mundane  intelligence  from 
the  seeming  purpose  and  fitness  of  tilings  —  but 
rather  the  hope  of  man  triumphantly  to  penetrate 
to  the  kernel  of  reality,  from  this  point  of  vantage 


74    FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

above  the  pettily  human  circle,  and  thus  opening 
out  to  him  a  wider,  purer,  richer  life.  Reality, 
apprehended  thus  in  its  very  kernel,  appeared  as 
sustained  by  a  living  unity,  indeed,  as  the  unfolding 
of  such  an  over-world  unity.  In  this  work  of 
apprehension  thought  gained  a  religious  character 
and  transformed  itself  at  last  wholly  into  religion. 
At  the  end  of  this  path  lies  mysticism,  with  its 
complete  immersion  of  all  the  varied  characteristics 
of  things  into  the  All-One,  and  its  devotion  of  the 
whole  soul  to  that  one  end. 

We  shall  find  that  this  course  of  thought  contains 
a  truth  which  religion  cannot  renounce  without 
becoming  narrow  and  rigid.  But  this  does  not 
signify  that  such  a  course  of  thought  is  able  of  itself 
to  found  religion,  and,  along  with  religion,  to  open 
out  a  new  kind  of  life.  In  reality  this  course  never 
attains  to  religion  through  the  energy  of  thought 
alone,  but  always,  though  unobserved,  through  an 
inflow  and  an  appropriation  of  feeling,  into  and  by 
the  thought  which  warms  its  cold  form.  In  a  word, 
a  thinking  left  simply  to  its  own  resources  would 
never  be  able  to  get  beyond  empty  forms  and  highly 
abstract  conceptions.  Indeed,  even  when  thus  com- 
pleted by  feeling  the  religion  that  arises  here  is 
still  in  a  high  degree  shapeless  and  lacks  the  power 
for  proceeding,  from  the  one  great  intuition  with 
which  it  starts,  to  the  formation  of  a  complex  of 
life.  In  addition,  there  springs  up  a  painful  doubt 
which  no  merely  intellectual  form  of  religion  is 
ever  able  to  overcome.  Is  thought  able  to  reach  the 
kernel  of  things  through  its  own  energy,  and  can  its 
highest  exertions  break  through   the  bounds  of  the 


INTRODUCTION  75 

merely  human  circle  and  raise  us  to  the  divine  ? 
Are  our  conceptions  in  reality  more  than  mere 
human  conceptions  ?  Is  it  not  a  mere  world  of 
phantoms  which  arises  in  them  ?  Must  not  thought 
itself  be  recognised  as  a  member  of  a  wider  con- 
nection of  life,  if  it  is  to  be  valid  as  an  expression 
of  truth,  and  is  to  assure  man  of  the  reality  of  a  new 
world  ?  Precisely  the  convulsions  of  modern  life, 
which  we  have  already  pursued,  make  this  doubt 
acute,  and  consequently  forbid  us  to  base  religion 
on  mere  speculation. 

Less  still,  according  to  the  experience  of  the 
centuries,  can  the  reflective  procedure  suffice  which 
derives  an  over-world  intelligence  from  the  special 
construction  of  the  external  world.  In  the  pheno- 
menal world  there  appeared,  to  such  a  procedure 
of  thought,  far  more  order,  design,  and  beauty 
than  was  possible  for  the  nature  of  things  to  accom- 
plish of  itself;  consequently,  every  behaviour  of 
physical  things  was  considered  as  a  testimony  of 
the  power,  wisdom,  and  goodness  of  an  over-world 
spirit.  This  train  of  thought  won  many  minds 
in  late  antiquity  ;  it  won  them  in  early  Christianity ; 
it  won  them  in  the  period  of  the  Aufhlarung; 
and,  because  of  its  perspicuity  and  comprehensive- 
ness, it  will  not  lose  its  influence  lightly.  But 
whatever  truth  may  be  imbedded  behind  its  anthro- 
pomorphic form,  it  has  not  a  convincing  power 
against  the  doubts  of  the  present  age.  For  one 
thing,  our  scientific  age  has  discovered  the  drawback 
in  this  mode  of  thinking,  that  it  puts  science  and 
religion  into  irreconcilable  antagonism.  For  whilst 
science  passionately  endeavours  to  bring  all  particular 


76   FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OK  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

events  into  relationship  with  each  other,  and  to 
understand  them  from  out  of  this  relationship,  that 
mode  of  thought  must  consider  religion  to  be  the 
more  securely  grounded,  the  more  immediate  is  the 
impression  of  design  presented  by  the  look  of  the 
world,  and  the  more  tangibly  single  startling  pheno- 
mena contrast  with  the  remaining  happenings.  If 
thus  each  gain  in  the  scientific  and  inherent  inter- 
pretation of  things  becomes  a  loss  to  religion,  then 
religion  must  withdraw  more  and  more  into  an 
unexplored  region  with  the  naive  presumption  that 
such  a  region  is  also  unexplorable,  and  without  any 
certainty  that  the  supposed  mystery  will  not,  some 
day,  reveal  its  secret  to  the  illuminating  light  of  the 
activity  of  thought.  We  discover,  too,  to-day,  much 
more  clearly  than  of  yore,  the  anthropomorphism  of 
the  method  which  carries  carelessly  human  modes  of 
thought  into  the  All,  and  explains  the  condition  of 
this  All  as  though  a  human  being  had  produced  it. 
Again,  for  our  present-day  outlook  on  to  the  universe, 
there  is,  alongside  of  the  purposive  that  may  be 
discovered  in  it,  so  much  that  seems  purposeless,  so 
much  struggle  and  suffering,  so  much  rigid  indiffer- 
ence to  human  welfare  and  spiritual  good,  so  much 
limitation  and  precariousness  even  in  the  purposive, 
that  for  us  the  starting-point  of  that  teleological 
doctrine  is  riddled  with  insecurities.  And,  finally, 
if  we  overcome  all  such  scruples  and  recognise  the 
superior  energy  perceptible  in  the  physical  universe, 
could  we  derive  from  such  a  consideration  a  new 
life,  and  could  the  discord  of  our  inward  nature 
be  overcome  ?  The  older  mode  of  thought  could  be- 
lieve such  results  to  be  possible  since  it  was  under  the 


INTRODUCTION  77 

influence  of  a  securely  operative  religion — a  religion 
which  heightened  the  intelligence  which  by  that  mode 
had,  with  considerable  artifice,  been  inferred  as  pre- 
sent in  the  world  to  a  living  personality,  and  which 
gave  to  this  intelligence  an  efficacious  presence  in  the 
human  soul.  That  mode  asserted  far  more  than  it 
had  proved.  But  that  influence  has  by  now  been 
shaken  to  its  very  foundation,  and  the  whole  of 
religion  has  become  problematic  ;  and  therewith  falls 
all  that  had  lifted  that  mode  of  thought  above  its 
intrinsic  capacity.  However  much,  then,  in  the 
world  may  remain  an  enigma  for  us,  and  however 
willing  we  may  be  to  acknowledge  dark  depths  in 
existence,  such  a  method  can  never  furnish  a  secure 
position  for  a  foundation  and  living  development  of 
religion.  "  The  amazement  of  the  sage  in  viewing 
the  depth  of  creation  and  his  search  in  the  abyss 
for  the  Creator  do  not  furnish  an  education  of  human- 
ity in  the  corresponding  belief.  In  the  abyss  of 
creation  the  investigator  can  readily  lose  himself, 
and  in  this  whirlpool  he  can  drift  about  and  miss 
his  way  far  from  the  source  of  the  fathomless  sea" 
(I'estalozzi). 

It  was  as  a  reaction  against  such  an  overstrain  of 
the  intellect,  against  the  transformation  of  religion 
into  speculation,  and  against  the  resolution  of  man 
into  the  Infinite,  that  there  followed  a  turning  to 
the  experiences  special  to  man  himself.  In  these, 
religion  seemed  to  be  able  to  win  a  stable  form,  a 
living  energy,  and  a  full  certainty.  Hut  here  again 
the  attempt,  though  above  reproach  in  its  basis,  has, 
in  its  execution,  led  to  problematical  positions ;  and 
this    chiefly  because    human    life    has    been   swerved 


78   FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

from  the  All  and  been  treated  as  a  separate  province. 
For  then  not  only  are  we  confronted  by  the  difficult, 
and  even  insoluble,  problem,  how  anything  that  lies 
within  such  an  entirely  separate  province  can  possibly 
reach  beyond  it — and  such  a  reaching  beyond  is  a 
necessary  part  of  religion ;  but  there  also  arises  the 
danger  that  such  a  basis  for  religion  will  keep  man 
too  much  tied  to  himself  and  will  simply  excite  his 
simply  natural  self.  Thus,  there  would  here  be  a  lack 
of  the  necessary  opposition  to  the  merely  human.  A 
closer  consideration  of  the  two  currents  into  which 
this  non-intellectual  endeavour  divides,  will  show  this 
more  clearly. 

It  is  either  in  the  softer  mode  of  feeling  or  in 
the  stronger  mode  of  will  that  this  way  seeks  access 
to  the  Divine.  Man  is  able  to  withdraw  himself 
into  his  own  feeling,  to  rid  himself  of  all  connection 
with  his  environment,  and,  in  a  condition  of  pure 
apartness  and  of  soaring  detachment,  to  know 
himself  to  be  both  far  above  his  merely  physical 
environment,  and  a  part  of  an  unseen  whole.  The 
mere  fact  that  he  is  thus  able  to  free  himself  from 
all  the  entanglements  of  things,  and  to  place  himself 
upon  his  own  separate  inwardness,  seems  to  prove 
a  greater  depth  of  reality  than  is  to  be  found  ex- 
ternally, and  seems,  too,  to  reveal  a  kingdom  of  the 
soul  in  spite  of  the  hardness  and  senselessness  of 
the  immediate  world.  And  in  such  a  self-contained 
feeling,  a  touch-stone  seemed  to  be  won  for  securely 
deciding  concerning  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  every 
religious  experience.  Here  alone  human  life  seemed 
to  win  full  immediacy,  here  alone  to  become  auto- 
nomous.    Let,  then,  all  that  claims  to  be  religion  be 


INTRODUCTION  79 

brought  to  this  point  in  order  to  prove  its  authen- 
ticity and,  in  a  characteristic  manner,  to  decide 
between  the  kernel  and  the  shell.  Indeed,  the  claims 
of  feeling  proceed  even  further :  they  prove  them- 
selves not  only  an  unfailing  touch-stone,  but  become 
the  creative  source  of  religion  itself.  In  these  claims 
are  contained  demands  of  life,  and  further  develop- 
ments take  place,  and  in  these  are  included  a  new  and 
divine  world  which  had  dawned  on  the  consciousness. 
Through  this  winning  independence  of  the  inward 
there  arises  a  longing  to  break  through  natural  ex- 
istence, and  a  desire  to  prove  that  this  characteristic 
and  novel  truth  which  now  dawns  is  a  real  longing 
after  infinity  and  eternity  and  freedom ;  and  the 
desire  seems  to  culminate  in  peace  and  holiness 
through  the  feeling  in  a  form  of  immediacy  of  a 
reality  of  such  greatness  and  goodness.  Thus  a  king- 
dom of  ideals  arises  and  declares  its  content  as  a 
definite  truth  over  against  all  mere  subjective  ex- 
perience. In  the  province  of  religion  the  conscious- 
ness fastens  itself  to  a  Whole  and  grips  the  whole 
man.  The  culmination  of  a  real  existence  for  one- 
self is  reached  in  such  a  manner,  and  the  full  bliss 
is  obtained  by  a  free  floating  in  the  ether  of 
infinity. 

This,  doubtless,  contains  a  good  deal  of  truth,  but 
this  truth  is  mingled  with  much  that  is  problematic, 
and  needs  a  fundamental  clarification  of  conceptions 
in  order  to  separate  the  certain  from  the  problematic. 
In  the  first  place,  mere  feeling  is  in  no  manner  an 
independent  inward  Life— a  still  deep,  certain  through 
itself  of  its  truth.  Feeling  testifies  only  to  the 
rousing  of  the  subject — to  the  degree  of  the  subjective 


80    FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

appropriation  of  the  processes  of  life.  The  truth- 
content  of  these  processes  remains  questionable  and 
doubtful,  and,  also,  the  rousing  has  varied  degrees 
because  feeling  can  be  shallow  and  feeble  in  spite  of 
considerable  amount  of  excitement,  and  can  dissipate 
and  consume  itself  in  hasty  agitation  without  its  being 
able  to  affect  the  remainder  of  life.  If  feeling  is, 
therefore,  in  its  simple  and  natural  state  less  full  of 
value  and  content  than  when  it  displays  its  connection 
with  real  existing  life,  it  cannot  construct  for  itself  a 
decisive  touch-stone ;  and  consequently  a  criticism  of 
the  feelings  is  as  necessary  as  a  criticism  of  concep- 
tions. One  can  adopt  fully  the  words  of  Hegel : 
"  The  true  nerve  is  the  truthful  thought ;  and  only 
when  the  thought  is  true  can  the  feeling  be  of  a 
truthful  kind." 

In  the  province  of  religion  the  movement  towards 
feeling  takes  place  usually  within  the  circle  of  crystal- 
lised tradition  and  the  common  order  of  things ; 
although  the  subjective  experience  crystallises  itself  in 
this  established  order,  it  wins  through  it  a  support  and 
a  content,  and  in  all  his  advance  the  subject  would 
in  no  way  shake  off  an  objective  world.  Thus  it  hap- 
pened with  Pascal  and  also  Schleiermacher,  especially 
after  the  aesthetic  enthusiasm  of  early  youth  had 
adopted  a  strong  religious  element  into  itself.  In 
both  cases  the  close  relationship  of  the  soul  of  the 
individual  to  religion  brought  forth  a  pure  gain  in 
warmth  and  inwardness.  Quite  otherwise  is  it, 
however,  when  the  feeling,  rejecting  all  wider  con- 
nections, attempts  to  generate  religion  purely  out  of 
its  own  nature.  Then  it  contracts  itself  through  such 
a  one-sided  striving  upon  its  own  particular  ability, 


INTRODUCTION  81 

and  consequently  its  product  proves  lean  and  poor. 
This  bare  feeling  is  so  fickle  and  soft,  so  devoid  of 
stability  and  content,  that  finally  it  discharges  itself 
into  an  entirely  vague  disposition.  And  when  such 
a  disposition  attempts  to  weave  a  content  out  of  itself 
in  order  to  lead  man  beyond  the  mere  human  pro- 
vince to  a  relationship  with  the  Divine,  it  degenerates 
of  necessity  to  the  level  of  eccentricity  and  fancy. 

The  proclamation  of  the  predominance  or  even 
of  the  autocracy  of  feeling  was  thus  usually  on  his- 
torical grounds  a  part  of  the  inner  process  of  the 
dissolution  of  religion.  The  receptive  form  estranges 
itself  inwardly  from  the  traditional  form  and  yet  fears 
to  break  away  completely,  so  that  one  sought  to  hold 
fast  to  a  portion  of  the  subjective  meaning  whilst  the 
substance  was  given  up.  One  has  the  tendency  to 
greet  such  a  state  of  things  because  it  seems  to  be  a 
gain  in  width  and  freedom,  but  the  fact  is  overlooked 
that  when  the  real  truth  falls  away  sooner  or  later 
its  reflex  in  the  minds  of  men  must  disappear.  Such 
a  religion  of  mere  feeling  had  the  tendency  to  become 
more  and  more  shadowy,  until  finally  it  vanishes 
completely  from  the  mind.  The  turn  to  bare  feeling 
is  accordingly  a  path  on  which  religions  not  so  much 
originate  as  disappear. 

The  basing  of  religion  upon  will  seems  to  place  it 
on  securer  grounds  and  under  stronger  motives.  But 
here  also  a  dilemma  will  soon  become  visible,  because 
the  will,  strictly  confined  within  its  own  limits, 
falls  inevitably  into  emptiness  ;  while  with  the  de- 
velopment of  some  kind  of  content,  it  enters  into 
wider  connections  and  becomes  dependent  on  these 

connections.     The  will,  doubtless,  as  a  characteristic 

6 


82    FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

decision  and  as  a  carrier  from  the  domain  of  faculty 
to  that  of  activity,  constitutes  a  phenomenon  of  the 
greatest  significance.  It  affirms  not  only  freedom 
from  all  mere  mechanism  of  nature,  but  also  promises 
to  become  the  starting-point  of  a  new  kind  of  world. 
But  as  soon  as  we  begin  to  develop  such  a  world,  and 
as  soon  as  we  lay  hold  of  a  law  of  activity  present 
in  the  will  which  points  to  morality,  we  step  beyond 
the  mere  individual  will  and  venture  to  make  asser- 
tions concerning  the  highest  ends  and  final  grounds. 
When  this  happens  there  happens,  too,  that  we  are 
compelled  to  recognise  a  kingdom  of  self-activity 
beyond  all  mere  psychological  functions.  Herewith 
new  demands  arise  concerning  the  reconstruction  of 
life  from  its  very  foundation,  and  the  will  must  now 
prove  its  particular  truth  out  of  the  larger  truth  of 
this  new  reconstruction. 

Common  to  feeling  and  will  are  two  different 
reasons  which  make  it  impossible  for  both  to  give 
religion  a  secure  basis.  Both  appear  as  original  and 
immediate  events ;  such  originality  and  immediacy 
seem  to  confer  on  both  the  right  of  sovereign  value 
and  the  ability  of  independent  creative  power.  But 
this  immediacy  is  first  of  all  a  mere  phenomenon  of 
consciousness,  and  as  such,  through  the  further  work 
of  thought,  is  liable  to  the  possibility  of  error  ;  much 
can  be  of  significance  in  the  phenomenon  which 
seems  to  the  immediate  impression  to  point  to  the 
contrary.  So  it  is  in  no  way  certain  that  because 
the  feeling  interprets  itself  as  a  pure  existence-for- 
self  that  such  an  existence-for-self  actually  exists. 
Is  there  not  much  concealed  and  indirect  dependence 
here,  and  could  not  the  assertion  rest    upon   error? 


INTRODUCTION  83 

It  is  similar  with  the  will  and  its  presumptive  free- 
dom. Is  not  the  will  probably  a  non-knowledge 
and  an  oversight  of  the  truth  of  its  previous  ties  ? 
Does  not  man  aim  at  something  more  than  merely 
to  feel  himself  free,  although  he  is  unable  to  penetrate 
to  the  causes  of  his  activity  ?  If  feeling  and  will, 
however,  in  their  present  fundamental  significance 
admit  of  so  much  doubt,  how  can  they  ever  create 
a  new  world  in  the  sense  of  religion,  and  through  this 
fortify  human  life  ? 

There  corresponds  to  this  insufficiency  of  the  basis 
an  insufficiency  of  presented  content.  Religion  finds 
it  difficult  to  disentangle  us  from  the  contradictions 
of  life  unless  it  culminates  in  an  inversion  of  existence, 
and  unless  it  exercises  through  such  inversion  a  sharp 
sifting  of  the  near-at-hand  materials  which  present 
themselves.  There  is  no  possibility  of  a  workable 
Yea  without  the  presence  of  a  powerful  Nay  ;  for 
thus  alone  can  the  transformation  strike  into  the 
deep.  In  feeling  or  will,  in  the  manner  already 
described,  such  a  radical  Nay  is  wanting,  and 
consequently  human  life  in  its  particular  circle  may 
aim  at  and  further  a  given  religion  without  being  able 
to  become  the  possessor  of  the  inward  elevation  and 
the  essential  renewal — two  characteristics  of  the  chief 
end  of  religion. 

When  the  whole  matter  is  surveyed,  there  appears 
no  possibility  for  any  single  aspect  of  life  to  arrive  at 
religion.  Each  one  of  these  aspects  is  not  only  too 
feeble  for  such  work,  but  is  also  unable  to  present 
religion  with  a  sufficient  content.  The  experiments 
made  in  such  direction  arc  in  sharp  conflict  with  one 
another:  on  the  one  side,    the    attention    is  directed 


84    FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

to  the  outward  character  of  religion  and  to  the 
building  up  of  a  scientific  province  of  thought,  whilst 
on  the  other  side  the  standpoint  is  that  of  immanence 
and  of  the  immediate  energy  of  movement  which 
arises  out  of  this.  The  one  is  as  necessary  as  the 
other,  but  on  this  path  the  two  aspects  refuse  to 
coalesce  :  the  general  character  of  religion,  mirrored  in 
the  intellect  alone,  endangers  the  inward  immediacy 
and  spiritual  warmth,  whilst  through  the  individual 
results  of  feeling  and  will  alone  the  immediacy 
endangers  the  spiritual  width  and  validity  which 
extend  beyond  the  individual.  So  that  a  new  path 
must  be  sought  which  will  unite  the  discordant 
elements.  It  is  certainly  clear  that  through  such 
discord  between  the  two  opposites,  an  immediate 
united  push  and  a  joyous  co-operation  are  impossible. 
The  experience  of  history  testifies  to  the  particular 
naivete  of  basing  religion  on  thought,  feeling,  or  will. 
It  remains  here  to  seek  a  new  path  which  is  not,  from 
the  very  outset,  under  the  power  of  the  opposites. 
We  need  not,  however,  allow  man  and  the  world, 
subject  and  object,  activity  and  presentation,  to  fall 
outside  one  another.  We  do  not  proceed  on  this 
new  path  from  any  ready-made  imaginative  existence, 
but  from  the  Life-process  itself;  and  from  this  Life- 
process  we  seek  to  develop  conceptions  of  existence 
and  strive  to  carry  the  particular  sides  of  our  con- 
sciousness far  enough  to  meet  within  an  essentially 
unique  Whole.  That  such  a  Whole  exists — it  has  all 
probability  on  its  side — appears  in  the  fact  that  the 
contradictions  of  our  existence  could  not  be  ex- 
perienced collectively  unless  there  existed  a  living 
unity  which  spans  the  separate  aspects  of  existence. 


INTRODUCTION  85 

But  where  is  such  a  unity  to  be  found  ?  And  when 
found,  is  it  able  to  be  of  effect  without  causing  a 
reversal  of  our  naive  view  of  things?  These  are 
other  questions.  And  it  may  be  held  as  certain  that 
no  proof  of  religion  is  possible  in  the  manner  a  fact 
of  the  connection  of  external  things  is  proved.  The 
path  to  religion  leads  through  the  contradictions  of 
life,  and  allows  itself  to  be  discovered  long  before  a 
clear  conception  of  the  overcoming  of  these  contra- 
dictions is  ripe.  It  is  the  great  characteristic  of 
religious  problems  that  a  great  contradiction  shall 
become  visible,  and  also  that  it  shall  be  overcome  by 
the  entrance  of  something  within  the  human  circle 
that  will  lift  man  beyond  that  circle.  This  demands 
energetic  analysis  and  essential  gradations.  The  first 
representation  (of  the  contradictions)  must  be  re- 
cognised and  must  become  more  effective  in  us  than 
lias  hitherto  been  the  case.  Thus  when  we  are 
battling  with  the  question  of  religion,  we  are  at  the 
same  time  battling  for  a  more  complete  picture  of 
reality  and  of  our  own  real  existence.  And  it  may 
be,  indeed,  that  we  shall  find  much  that  is  provisional 
and  full  of  contradictions.  But  who  has  given  us  the 
certainty  that  the  universe  in  us  and  we  in  it  are 
complete  \  Is  it  not  far  more  probable  that  the  main 
value  of  life  lies  in  the  fact  that  we  are  allowed  to 
combat  with  alien  elements? 


PART  II.— THE  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF 
UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

(Continued) 

CHAPTER   VI 

a.  The  Complexity  of  Human  Lite 

1.   TJic  Dualism  in  Human  Life 

The  movement  of  the  Life-process  in  the  direction 
of  the  religious  problem  has  before  all  else  to  ask  if  it 
fashions  a  characteristic  and  continuous  Whole,  or  if 
it  produces  essential  differences,  and  especially  if  it 
exhibits  a  thorough-going  dualism.  Such  a  dualism 
might  probably  offer  a  thread  which  might  guide  us 
further.  Now,  an  unbiassed  view,  undisturbed  by 
particular  one-sided  tendencies,  holds  that  our  life 
in  reality  contains  two  different  aspects :  that  it  in- 
cludes the  two  qualities  and  stages  of  Nature  and 
Spirit  within  itself.  This  hypothesis  will  be  eluci- 
dated as  we  proceed.  Such  an  antithesis  is  quite 
other  than  the  ones  between  body  and  mind,  object 
and  subject,  extension  of  space  and  conscious  activity, 
as  these  were  brought  to  the  foreground  in  the 
period  of  the  Aufklarung.  Our  antithesis  lies  wholly 
within  consciousness  itself.  The  particular  psychic  life 
shows  a  twofold  characteristic :  on  the  one  hand,  it 
merely  carries  forth  its  sensuous  surrounding  nature 
and  adapts  itself  within  the  bounds  of  nature,  while 

86 


THE   COMPLEXITY    OF   HUMAN   LIFE  87 

on  the  other  hand,  and  contemporaneously,  new 
energies,  ends,  and  forms  are  produced  whose  connec- 
tions lead  to  a  new  kind  of  reality  over  against  all 
mere  nature.  This  difference  is  so  fundamental  for 
the  whole  of  our  investigation  as  to  render  a  clear 
illumination  and  a  sufficient  basis  for  it  impossible 
without  an  investigation  into  its  very  nature. 

Modern  Science  itself  has  proved  visible  nature, 
out  of  which  we  have  sprung,  to  be  a  fugitive  web 
of  purely  particular  elements  or  forces  lying  in  im- 
mensity. Speculation  may,  accepting  some  supposed 
ground  of  the  multiplicity  and  the  inward  connec- 
tions, resolve  the  universal  reciprocal  actions  as  well 
as  the  course  of  the  whole  universe  into  simple 
fundamental  forms.  Natural  Science  can  push  back 
such  connections  and  provide  all  explanation  from  the 
simple  elements  themselves.  For  all  phenomena 
grow  out  of  relationships,  from  step  to  step,  on  the 
ground  of  experience ;  one  phenomenon  against  the 
other  receives  interchanges  in  the  reciprocity  of  the 
effects.  Nowhere  does  the  guidance  of  the  move- 
ment seem  to  proceed  from  a  Whole,  and  nowhere 
does  life  itself  seem  to  rest  upon  an  elevated  and 
collective  end  of  self-maintenance.  What  finds  itself 
in  amalgamation  is  nothing  other  than  a  construction 
of  things  side  by  side  in  space.  The  external  con- 
tiguity, in  the  main,  does  no  more  than  bring  the 
elements  together;  an  inward  participation  collect- 
ively is  throughout  impossible  and,  indeed,  unthink- 
able. Speculation  may  anew  complete  this  picture  by 
stating  that  the  elements  cannot  possibly  pass  wholly 
into  the  mutual  relations,  and  that  they  must  possess 
some   individual    existence.       But    such    individual 


88    FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

existence  lies  inaccessible  beyond  the  phenomena 
and  remains  unexplored  for  all  times.  Along  with 
this,  each  question  concerning  final  "grounds"  un- 
folds another  question,  and  there  is  here,  therefore, 
no  discovery  of  the  Why  and  Wherefore ;  the 
scientific  investigation  of  the  processes  of  nature 
shows  them  as  no  more  than  mere  occurrences. 

As  such  an  existence  from  without,  with  its  myriad 
forms,  surrounds  us,  it  extends  itself  also  deeply  into 
the  province  of  the  soul.  Also,  human  activities  are 
above  all  driven  by  the  needs  of  individual  self- 
preservation  and  self-elevation,  and  it  is  the  execution 
of  this  alone  which  gives  value  to  man  and  things ; 
here  activities  are  not  meant  for  alien  aims — they  are 
not  meant  for  any  existing  Whole  beyond  the  realm 
of  the  life  of  humanity.  Our  life,  primarily,  creates 
its  content  out  of  the  external  relations  and  connec- 
tions ;  it  is  nothing  other  than  an  intercourse  with 
the  environment.  What  is  called  "  inward  "  is  only 
echo  and  ashes  of  what  originated  through  the 
friction  of  the  connections.  Our  ideas  or  conceptions, 
for  instance,  are  mere  sensuous  presentations  ;  that 
alone  can  be  termed  good  which  our  position  utilises 
in  the  sensuous  existence ;  all  happiness,  in  the  last 
resort,  is  rooted  in  sensuous  stimulation ;  what  is 
termed  non-sensuous  or  spiritual  is  in  truth  only  a 
sensuous  of  a  finer  make.  Also,  the  connection  of 
the  psychological  movements  corresponds  entirely 
with  the  order  of  nature.  Isolated  elements  unite  and 
link  themselves  simultaneously  or  in  turns,  stir  and 
displace  themselves  ;  and  it  is  the  association  of  their 
mechanism  which  largely  governs  our  life  and  makes 
out  of  it  a  complicated  machine  which  far  more  moves 


THE   COMPLEXITY   OF   HUMAN   LIFE  89 

independently  of  us  than  helps  to  shape  our  own 
particular  product.  No  superior  unity  spans  and 
stirs  the  manifold,  so  that  there  is  no  room  here 
for  either  ends  or  activities. 

As,  however,  our  position  remains  bound  in  this 
network,  we  infer  that  we  cannot  be  carried  beyond 
that  position.  What  in  themselves  these  things  may 
be,  we  can  know  nothing,  and  there  is  no  need  for  us 
to  know ;  in  such  a  beyond  we  could  neither  interest 
ourselves  nor  attain  our  ends.  We  see,  too,  that  the 
psychic  life  in  its  initial  stages  remains  within  the 
domain  of  nature,  and  through  and  through  exhibits 
the  character  of  a  mere  existing  thing :  it  comes  and 
goes,  it  mounts  and  sinks,  it  is  tied  to  sensual  appetite 
and  mechanism — a  life  without  ends  or  aims,  without 
meaning  or  reason,  entirely  sinking  to  the  level  of 
bare  and  barren  existence.  If  we  survey  this  psychic 
life  in  its  extension  over  the  expanse  of  nature  right 
up  to  man  himself,  we  find  it  nowhere  resting  in  itself, 
but  it  appears  with  all  its  performances  as  mere  means 
to  the  mere  natural  conservation  of  its  own  existence. 
What  purpose  does  the  richest  equipment  in  the 
animal  world  serve  but  to  put  on  war- footing  the 
individual  and  the  species  in  the  struggle  for  ex- 
istence \  And  hardly  more  does  the  mere  psychic 
life  perform  for  man,  for  it  remains  in  his  life,  too,  a 
mere  piece  of  the  natural  Life-process. 

But  though  this  kind  of  life  lias  governed  humanity 
almost  exclusively  in  its  initial  stages,  and  though 
it  has  carried  the  natural  and  commonplace  to  the 
throne,  yet  such  a  kind  of  life  does  not  remain  isolated, 
for  along  with  it  there  develops  u  new  and  higher 
kind  with  other  configuration  and  direction.     Step  by 


90    FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

step  transformations  appear  and  form  an  essentially 
higher  standard.  Thus  human  activity  is  not  wholly 
held  fast  by  self-assertion,  but  also  reaches  out  in  the 
direction  of  the  welfare  of  others.  Consequently, 
inward  connections  of  the  community  arise  and  win 
the  individual  up  to  the  point  even  of  sacrifice  of  self 
for  the  aims  of  the  community ;  in  other  departments 
of  life  the  spiritual  activity  draws  the  man  unto  him- 
self and  places  his  striving  under  an  actual  compulsion  ; 
in  art,  science,  law,  technics,  etc.,  great  connections 
grow  up  and  urge  man  into  their  service. 

Such  work  could  never  be  linked  together  into  a 
Whole  had  it  not  been  that  a  transformation  had  pro- 
ceeded out  of  a  Whole  in  the  inward  web  of  the  soul. 
An  inward  representation  of  these  connections  must 
be  possible  ;  the  thought  of  a  Whole  must  span  the 
manifold,  and  the  entire  mass  must  be  transmuted 
into  a  system.  Indeed,  this  shows  in  reality  the 
erection  of  a  connected  world  of  thought — a  general 
organisation  of  culture. 

Of  more  importance  still  is  the  fact  that  the  Life- 
process  disengages  itself  from  its  mere  connections 
with  things :  the  process  deepens  the  life  of  the 
soul  in  itself,  and  strives  to  pass  beyond  the  mere 
appearance  of  things  to  their  nature.  This  Life-pro- 
cess is  carried  further  and  cast  into  a  new  mould  by 
receiving  into  itself  from  the  external  world  ;  through 
this  new  forms  and  energies  appear,  and  the  inward- 
ness attains  the  capacity  for  production,  as,  for  instance, 
we  find  on  the  heights  of  science  that  the  conceptions 
are  not  a  mere  thesis  of  sensuous  presentations  but 
characteristic  creations  of  thought.  More  and  more 
the  inward  world  links  itself  together  into  a  unity ;  it 


THE   COMPLEXITY   OF   HUMAN   LIFE  91 

seeks  and  finds  original  tracks,  and  exercises  a  counter- 
activity  to  all  the  mere  environment.  An  activity 
arising  out  of  characteristic  energy  and  decision  now 
places  itself  over  against  all  mere  hap  and  hazard. 
To  such  an  independence  of  the  individual  soul 
corresponds  the  greater  self-activity  of  humanity. 
The  latter  prepares  a  particular  kingdom — a  kingdom 
of  civilisation — over  against  the  realm  of  nature,  and  a 
corporate  Spiritual  Life,  founded  in  itself,  bridges  all 
the  branch  provinces  and  calls  men  to  a  new  existence 
far  beyond  the  reach  of  nature. 

At  the  same  time,  a  new  relationship  is  won  towards 
all  natural  things.  It  suffices  us  no  longer  to  know 
what  the  mere  connections  of  things  are  ;  we  must  forge 
our  way  in  the  direction  of  the  connections  of  things 
and  transpose  ourselves  in  the  midst  of  their  character- 
istic existence,  and  participate  in  their  characteristic 
life.  This  is  accomplished  not  only  through  mental  dis- 
cernment and  its  longing  after  truth,  but  also  through 
the  whole  of  the  life  of  the  spirit.  What  differentiates 
definite  love  from  sensuous  excitement  but  the  re- 
ception of  the  "  other  "  into  one's  own  soul  (  How 
could  a  fact  with  its  compulsion  move  us,  were  it  not 
that  it  was  born  in  our  characteristic  striving  ?  This 
signifies  a  breaking  through  the  narrowness  of  natural 
existence  as  well  as  the  most  fundamental  transforma- 
tion of  all  greatness  and  goodness.  It  is  only  when  the 
Life-process  draws  this  seeming  "beyond"  into  itself 
that  there  arises  a  problem  of  truth,  and  that  a  good 
(one  of  the  most  riddlesome  of  all  terms)  grows  over 
against  the  useful  and  the  pleasurable.  What  satis- 
fied us  previously  as  happiness — the  maintenance  and 
enhancement  of  the  individual  —becomes  through  the 


92    FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

inward  expansion  of  life  small  and  lean,  and,  indeed, 
a  hindrance  to  definite  welfare. 

This  new  direction  of  life  develops  into  an 
objectivity  and  exhibits  an  activity  of  the  soul  of  a 
very  different  nature  from  the  activity  known  on 
earlier  levels.  This  new  object  never  gains  an  inde- 
pendence and  an  inward  present  moment  from  sen- 
suous impressions,  but  only  through  its  deliverance 
from  these ;  this  deliverance  is,  however,  a  work  of 
the  activity  of  thought,  for  thought  transplants  us 
into  the  very  centre  of  things,  and  it  is  through  the 
conception  of  the  things  as  great  thoughts  that  the 
things  can  produce  in  us  a  living  movement.  Thus 
every  further  expansion  of  life  means,  at  the  same 
time,  a  remove  into  the  province  of  a  world  of  thought, 
of  the  non-sensuous,  and  of  ideals.  Indeed,  there 
follows  an  inversion  of  life  in  which  the  work  of 
thought  operates  in  the  interpretation  of  the  earlier 
stages  of  things  and  of  the  foundation  of  all ;  and 
through  this  process  the  sensuous  aspect  of  things 
withdraws  to  a  secondary  place  and  sinks  to  the 
periphery  of  life.  This  basing  of  life  upon  thought 
is,  at  the  same  time,  a  gain  in  transparency  and 
freedom.  True,  the  object  which  we  ourselves 
appropriate  exercises  a  strong  constraint  against  our 
previous  condition — an  inward  necessity  of  our  nature 
dispels  all  arbitrary  choice.  But  this  constraint  of 
the  outward  fact  does  not  work  through  physical 
pressure,  but  all  along  through  the  intervention  of  a 
characteristic  activity — an  activity  which  pulls  out 
arbitrary  choice  and  thus  establishes  freedom.  All 
investigation  comes  under  the  necessities  of  the  case, 
but  the  strongest  external  sway  of  things  cannot  force 


THE   COMPLEXITY   OF   HUMAN   LIFE  93 

open  a  turn  to  investigation  :  aesthetic  creativeness 
could  not  discover  and  obey  the  necessities  of  its 
handling-object  had  not  the  imagination  previously 
linked  that  object  to  itself.  The  thought  of  obliga- 
tion is  an  absurdity  without  an  acceptation  of  the 
fact  of  a  moral  organising  power  in  the  will. 

Thus  a  new  life  unfolds  itself  in  manifold  traits ; 
a  bi-lateral  life  and  a  parting  of  the  ways  towards 
wider  and  more  decisive  directions  now  become 
needful  in  order  to  obtain  a  complete  view  of  things. 
In  the  one,  our  acts  are  more  and  more  flung  back 
upon  ourselves  and  thus  strike  a  depth  in  the  soil  of 
independent  inwardness  ;  in  the  other,  it  becomes 
possible  to  plant  ourselves  on  new  objects  and  be 
filled  and  moved  by  them.  The  collective  flow  of 
things  found  on  the  natural  level  is  now  entirely  dis- 
carded ;  subject  and  object,  man  and  the  world, 
activity  and  its  object  of  treatment,  have  all  separated 
themselves  and  work  upon  one  another  as  independent 
energies.  Hut  the  cleft  which  frees  our  life  from 
numb  subjection  cannot  signify  as  yet  the  final  con- 
clusion ;  indeed,  the  sharper  and  clearer  that  cleft 
becomes,  the  more  do  we  discover  it  as  an  intolerable 
situation,  and  are  driven  with  all  our  available  energy 
to  seek  to  re-establish  again  some  kind  of  unity 
which  had  succumbed  during  the  initial  stages  of  the 
inward  movement.  The  road  to  a  Yea  lies  through 
a  Nay;  we  must  separate  in  order  again  to  unite, 
and  ninsl  depaii  from  our  ordinary  state  in  order 
again  to  ret  urn  to  it.  There  enters  thus  a  negative 
element  into  the  work  of  life;  all  definite  departure 
on  the  new  road  follows  through  toil  and  struggle, 
doubt  and  pain,  but  in  all  this  aggravation  of  existence 


94    FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

the  man  is  raised  to  a  higher  level,  and  is  ennobled 
through  the  inward  compulsion  which  drives  him 
forward.  Intertwining  movements  and  revolutions 
break  the  ban  of  the  fixed  actuality  which  lay  upon 
natural  existence.  Much  still  remains  dark  and 
mysterious,  and,  indeed,  becomes  more  and  more  so, 
but  already  the  clear  discovery  of  the  darkness  heralds 
the  beginning  of  a  coming  enlightenment.  We  are 
not  allowed  now  to  accept  the  phenomena  as  they 
merely  fall  upon  us  ;  we  cannot  now  leave  on  one 
side  a  standard  and  a  judgment,  a  sanction  and  a 
disapproval ;  over  all  the  particular  questions  there 
arises  the  question  concerning  the  aim  of  all  action 
and  the  meaning  of  all  life.  The  whole  manifold 
must  fasten  itself  together  and  obtain  a  characteristic 
view  of  things. 

There  is,  thus,  no  doubt  that  our  conscious  life  is 
not  a  mere  furtherance  of  the  movement  of  the 
natural  order,  but  that  within  it  a  new  art  of  life  is  to 
be  recognised  ;  our  life  constitutes  not  merely  a  simple 
superficies,  but  it  includes  two  qualities  fundamentally 
different  in  kind.  That  such  a  view  of  life  is  less 
simple,  and  that  scientific  investigation  demands  a 
greater  labour  out  of  it,  must  not  prevent  us  from 
recognising  such  a  fact.  Or,  shall  we  bend,  enfeeble, 
and  trim  such  a  life  in  order  that  we  may  join 
together  merely  those  conceptions  alone  which  will 
produce  our  mere  individual  comfort  ? 

2.   The  Contradiction  in  Human  Life 

The  point  of  contact  of  two  different  stages  of  a 
life   signifies   in   itself  no    contradiction ;   such    con- 


THE   COMPLEXITY   OF   HUMAN   LIFE  95 

tradiction  would  arise  only  if  a  conflict  between  the 
two  stages  originates,  and  if  the  relationship  of  both 
became  something  other  than  what  corresponded  to 
their  separate  inner  significance.  And  it  is  this  which 
actually  happens.  The  Spiritual  Life  presents  itself  as 
pre-eminent  and  as  being  called  to  wield  the  sceptre ; 
it  has  often  to  content  itself  with  a  humbler  position ; 
it  will  thus,  true  to  its  own  nature,  rest  in  itself  and 
construct  its  own  particular  province,  but  through 
such  a  treatment  of  it  the  man  remains  still  tied  to 
the  natural  order,  and  the  pre-eminent  life  seems  to 
accompany  that  order  as  a  mere  addendum.  Such  a 
contraction  confines  the  effect  not  only  from  the  ex- 
ternal side,  but  also  brings  the  internal  formation  to  a 
standstill:  the  Spiritual  Life,  through  that  dependence 
upon  an  alien  power,  seems  not  able  to  accomplish 
the  purpose  of  its  own  nature,  and  consequently  must 
be  wrecked  in  its  search  for  a  More,  which  lies  on  a 
coast  beyond  the  natural  province.  Thus  it  becomes 
in  itself  a  contradiction,  and  what  promised  to  illumine 
our  existence  proves  itself  now  a  difficult  riddle. 

(a)   The  Weakness  of  the  Spiritual  Motive-Powers. 

A  loosening  of  the  activity  from  the  natural  instinct 
of  self-preservation  and  its  liberation  for  aims  of  a 
conjoint  and  actual  kind  are  essential  to  the  Spiritual 
Life  This  shows  itself  especially  in  the  province  of 
morality.  In  however  devious  ways  morality  maybe 
conceived  and  founded,  that  it  is  a  contraction  of  the 
instincts  and  signifies  a  direction  upon  common  aims 
cannot  be  doubted.  How  do  things  stand  in  reality 
with  the  evolution  of  such  a  conviction^  Over  the 
whole  field  of  civilisation  there  extends  an  appearance 
of    morality,    self-forgetfulncss,    and    willingness    for 


96    FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

sacrifice ;  the  corporate  organisations  hold  before 
themselves  great  aims,  and  mutual  co-operation,  love, 
and  esteem  find  their  way  by  the  sheer  force  of  their 
own  inherent  assurance  into  organic  society.  But  he 
who  accepts  this  appearance  for  the  whole  truth  is 
soon  disillusioned,  and  finds  pretty  quickly  that  the 
gold  pieces  prove  themselves  to  be  copper  coins,  and 
that  that  which  constitutes  the  real  experience  of  life 
is  in  its  foundation  nothing  other  and  nothing  less 
than  an  insight  into,  and  a  loosening  from,  the  mere 
appearance  of  things.  So  that  from  of  old  the  renown 
of  an  insight  into  human  nature  belongs  to  the 
pessimists  and  not  to  the  optimists.  The  organisa- 
tion of  co-operative  life,  however,  treats  entirely  the 
particular  interests  of  individuals  as  the  driving- 
power  of  all  effort ;  such  an  organisation  wins  such  a 
power  not  through  the  presentation  of  elevated  aims 
beyond  the  circle  of  immediate  life,  but  through  the 
benefits  which  it  is  called  to  further,  and  through 
the  drawbacks  which  it  is  called  to  obviate.  Indeed, 
the  closer  these  individual  movements  link  themselves 
to  the  system  of  society,  the  securer  becomes  their 
actual  strength ;  how  poorly  would  the  movement 
proceed  in  its  love  for  the  good  if  it  left  on  one  side 
its  abhorrence  of  evil !  Religions,  in  spite  of  all  their 
differences,  are  united  in  the  fact  that  they  change  in 
some  degree  the  moral  achievements  of  man.  The 
optimistic  character  of  even  the  religions  of  law  does 
not  confine  itself  to  the  natural  good  of  human  nature, 
but  expects  an  obedience  to  the  voice  of  Divine 
command  which  promises,  on  the  one  hand,  great 
rewards,  and  threatens,  on  the  other  hand,  heavy 
punishments      Philosophy,    too,   handles    incessantly 


THE   COMPLEXITY   OF   HUMAN   LIFE  97 

the  wide  gap  between  the  moral  potency  and  the 
actual  conduct  of  man ;  indeed,  the  deeper  the  great 
thinkers  have  penetrated  into  the  depth  of  human 
existence,  as,  for  example,  Plato  and  Kant,  the  more 
they  have  discovered  that  contradiction ;  but  the 
thinkers  who,  as  Aristotle  and  Leibniz,  presented 
the  facts  in  a  more  friendly  manner,  yet  became,  in 
the  further  development  of  their  thoughts,  living 
witnesses  against  their  earlier  outlook,  and  in  favour 
of  another  view  of  things.  For  as  soon  as  they  turned 
towards  the  expanse  of  life  and  trod  on  the  impressions 
of  experience,  the  favourable  picture  was  inverted 
into  its  opposite.  Thinkers  are  far  more  united  con- 
cerning their  judgment  of  man  than  could  be  expected 
from  the  strife  of  their  different  conceptions ;  for 
example,  they  present  the  same  truth  in  different 
forms.  Art  also  tends  to  the  same  convictions  as 
philosophy  and  religion  when  it  does  not  falsify  the 
reality  in  shallow  embellishments,  but  endeavours 
to  illumine  it  and  learns  to  see  it  in  a  truthful  way. 
How  many  entanglements  has  such  Art  brought 
to  the  surface,  and  under  what  strong  contrasts  has 
it  exhibited  human  existence! 

In  great  moments,  however,  individuals  and  nations 
have  exhibited  a  character  free  from  self  and  capable 
of  heroic  sacrifice.  This  is  true  of  particular  moments 
when  human  nature  was  under  strong  stimuli,  and  is 
a  phenomenon  witnessed  but  seldom.  But  docs  not 
the  circumstance  prove,  when  it  is  considered  more 
closely,  that  such  achievements — prized  as  something 
miraculous  and   conceived   as  something  superhuman 

condemned   root  and   branch    the  ordinary   natural 

ways  of  man  I 

7 


98    FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

The  problem  does  not  limit  itself,  however,  to  the 
moral  province  in  any  definite  sense ;  it  is  not  only 
when  man  is  required  to  sacrifice  his  own  self,  but  also 
when  he  shall  bring  forth  some  earnest  participation 
in  the  affairs  which  lie  beyond  his  self,  that  the  ability 
is  denied  him  for  such  an  accomplishment.  It  may 
be  an  activity  concerning  the  state  and  society,  or 
art  and  science ;  everywhere  the  ordinary  mode 
of  life  shows  a  lamentable  callousness  and  apathy, 
everywhere  the  effort  proceeds  not  so  much  upon 
the  thing  itself  as  upon  the  advantages  which  promise 
to  accrue  to  the  individual.  In  order  to  win  any 
energy  for  the  actual  thing  itself,  it  becomes  obligatory 
to  take  solitary  circuitous  paths  and  perilous  enter- 
prises, and  then  the  situation  seems  to  need  a  severe 
intimidation,  and  soon,  too,  a  daring  assertion  of  one's 
own  self ;  but,  soon,  on  the  contrary,  the  particular 
interest  has  somehow  found  its  vantage-point,  and 
transforms  the  immovable  apathy  into  the  closest 
attention  and  the  most  strenuous  interest.  If  it  is 
now  felt  that  the  situation  at  the  height  of  this 
creativeness  is  a  better  one,  this  in  its  turn  is  clearly 
discovered  as  an  exception,  and  serves  more  for  the 
corroboration  than  for  the  refutation  of  the  assertion. 

There  remains,  therefore,  no  doubt  as  to  the  weak- 
ness of  the  spiritual  and  moral  motive-powers.  But 
noteworthy  enough  man  stands  up  in  strong  opposi- 
tion to  the  acknowledgment  of  this  fact.  Throughout 
the  whole  of  life  and  of  corporate  organisations  there 
proceeds  a  striving  to  represent  things  in  a  better 
light,  to  show  them  to  be  nobler  and  greater  than 
they  actually  are ;  an  open  conviction  and  calm 
acknowledgment  of  the  real   facts  of  the  case  have 


THE   COMPLEXITY   OF   HUMAN   LIFE  99 

fled,  and  men  practise  hypocrisy  not  only  towards 
one  another  but  more  towards  themselves  ;  and  even 
in  front  of  his  own  consciousness  the  man  speaks 
and  imagines  himself  on  the  heights.  This  inces- 
sant drama  has  raised,  from  of  old,  the  bitter  jests 
of  the  satirists,  the  fiery  indignation  of  the  friends 
of  truth,  and  the  deep  pain  of  all  moral  natures. 
There  is  imbedded  here  a  problem:  Why  do  we 
shun  recognising  that  mysterious  Something  whose 
actuality  is  undeniable  ?  Why  do  we  not  acquiesce 
in  the  ordinary  state  of  things  which  surrounds  us 
on  all  sides  ?  There  must  be  some  kind  of  concealed 
counter-effect  extant;  whence  that  concealment — 
that  darkness — came  and  whither  it  goes  nobody 
knows.  And  thus  our  existence  continues  largely 
under  the  power  of  opposites,  and  we  are  unable 
to  see  how  the  spiritual  can  prevail,  although  the 
necessity  of  our  nature  even  against  our  will  holds 
us  to  it. 

(ft)  The  Spiritual  Impotence  of  Man. — Hitherto  the 
subject  has  on  the  whole  handled  the  strength  of 
the  spiritual  motive-powers  in  man ;  the  will  as  yet 
has  not  corresponded  to  the  demands  of  the  new 
standard.  But  the  question  arises,  whether  the 
will  in  particular  is  responsible  lor  the  fault,  or 
whether,  rather,  the  entanglement  does  not  extend 
to  the  very  foundation  of  our  nature.  Is  man 
able,  primarily,  to  pursue  something  beyond  his 
present  situation?  Can  Spiritual  Life,  in  the  distinct 
way  it  expresses  itself  within  the  confines  and  sub- 
jectivity of  his  own  nature,  come  to  actual  realisation  ? 
Will  not  all  things — not  only  mere  appearances  but 
even   truth — be    drawn    down    to   the    level    of    the 


100  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

ordinary  nature  and  thus  destroyed  ?  Such  things 
could  transform  all  into  an  over-natural  kingdom  of 
life  constructed  out  of  the  largeness  and  truth  of 
things. 

The  aspiration  after  knowledge  becomes  truth — the 
particular  truth  of  things  beyond  the  bare  impressions 
which  surround  the  mind  in  sensations  and  which 
are  deposited  into  percepts  and  ideas.  The  sensuous 
presentation  of  the  idea  disengages  itself  from  the 
idea  itself  in  order  to  present  before  the  mind  the 
existence  of  things  in  space.  But  how  do  we  step 
beyond  the  province  of  the  presentation  ?  Does  not 
the  idea  the  more  it  withdraws  itself  from  its  object 
and  stands  upon  its  own  particular  potency  become 
more  empty  and  shadowy  ?  And,  too,  in  the  most 
sublime  ideas  sensuous  presentations  adhere.  With 
what  ardour  and  toil  has  religion,  from  of  old,  striven 
to  obtain  pure  conceptions  of  the  Divine  ;  and  always 
in  this  procedure  how  greatly  has  it  discovered  anew 
the  limits  of  our  powers  !  Must  it  not  then  acknow- 
ledge even  in  its  highest  flight  that  all  human  know- 
ledge attains  to  no  more  than  a  metaphor  ?  But  even 
so  much  signifies  that  the  human  notion  holds  man 
with  inexorable  power. 

What  is  true  of  the  idea  is  true  on  the  whole  of 
knowledge.  Knowledge  ought  to  subsist  upon  the 
"in-itself "  of  reality,  and  yet  it  is  held  in  trammels 
by  the  subjectivity  of  the  soul.  The  subject  remains 
always  with  himself,  and  can  extend  and  extend  this 
particular  circle,  but  is  never  able  to  break  through 
the  situation  and  transpose  himself  into  the  object ; 
what  we  occupy  ourselves  with  are  never  things  but 
only  our  presentations  and  images   of  things.     The 


THE   COMPLEXITY    OF   HUMAN   LIFE         101 

idea  itself  of  any  thing  is  not  given  from  the  external 
but  originates  in  our  own  characteristic  thought. 
Thus  there  stands  continually  between  us  and  reality 
the  ghost  of  our  own  particular  thought  and  reflection, 
which  threatens  to  reduce  the  world  to  a  shadow ; 
instead  of  seeing  the  things  we  see  only  a  haze  with 
which  they  are  surrounded,  and  we  only  substitute 
one  haze  for  another  when  we  believe  we  have 
uncovered  them. 

Hence  to  all  great  thinkers  the  conception  of 
truth  has  been  the  most  difficult  of  all  problems  as 
well  as  a  riddle  full  of  mysteries.  To  such  thinkers 
the  work  of  knowledge  presented  itself  not  as  a 
wandering  on  a  paved,  secure  path,  but  as  an  inces- 
sant wrestling  to  find  the  main  goal  and  the  main 
direction  of  a  new  track.  Philosophy,  therefore,  must 
take  up  anew  the  question  of  the  possibility  of  truth, 
and  must  consider  that  the  question  is  not  altogether 
settled  by  previous  work  upon  it.  In  spite  of  all 
toil  the  goal  seemed  to  recede  into  an  ever-wider 
distance.  The  Greeks  considered  the  problem  simply 
as  the  unbroken  connection  of  man  and  the  world, 
and  the  truth  was  conceived  as  a  harmony  between 
subject  and  object  (adceguatio  rei  et  intellectus  of  the 
Middle  Ages),  and  found  such  harmony  quite  attain- 
able through  the  accepted  kinship  of  nature  on  both 
sides.  The  growing  inwardness  of  human  life  slackens 
and  parts  asunder  such  a  connection  with  the  environ- 
ment; it  corresponds  to  the  most  important  situation 
of  Descartes  when  he  tore  off  the  subject  from  its 

entanglement  with  the  physical  universe  and  under- 
took to  construct  reality  out  of  consciousness.  But 
even  he,  at  the  same  time,  held   last  to  the  existence 


102  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

of  an  independent  actual  world  of  man  in  conscious- 
ness ;  and  therefore  it  became  necessary  for  him  to  find 
a  connection  between  subject  and  object  in  a  new 
kind  of  way.  That  happened  with  his  successors 
in  the  doctrine  of  parallelism  between  thought  and 
existence.  Each  of  the  two  unfolds  independently 
of  the  other  ;  a  pre-eminent  power — of  an  immanent 
or  of  a  transcendent  nature — causes  at  least  here  and 
there  a  harmony  of  results.  But  to  conceive  of  the 
truth  of  the  problem  in  this  manner  is  not  to  solve 
it  so  much  as  to  push  it  backward  ;  it  must  soon 
reappear  as  an  intolerable  contradiction  alternately 
over  against  the  world  and  upon  the  world.  Such  a 
criticism  culminated  with  decisive  acuteness  in  Kant ; 
a  truth  seemed  possible  to  him  only  in  the  degree 
it  is  conceived  apart  from  all  its  relationships  with 
things,  and  thus  the  problem  is  laid  entirely  in  the 
particular  thought-province  of  the  subject.  But 
when  it  is  not  recognised  that  a  world  of  things 
persists  by  the  side  of  this  thought-process  and  that 
the  subject  is  nothing  without  such  a  world,  our 
world  transforms  itself  into  a  kingdom  of  appearances 
and  then  it  becomes  questionable  whether  a  truth 
in  any  definite  sense  remains,  and  whether  we  are 
not  standing  on  a  province  between  knowledge  and 
non-knowledge.  A  way  out  of  this  dilemma  as  well 
as  a  conclusion  of  the  most  important  movements 
were  sought  by  the  German  speculative  movement, 
in  which  the  leaders  allowed  the  things  to  remain 
on  one  side,  and  endeavoured  to  bring  forth  reality 
out  of  their  own  thought.  That  such  an  investigation 
signifies  an  overstrain  of  human  ability,  and  that, 
at  the  same  time,  it  robs  the  reality  of  all  content 


THE   COMPLEXITY    OF   HUMAN   LIFE        103 

there  is  no  doubt,  as  this  is  clear  enough  from  the 
consequent  disillusion  which  followed  the  speculation. 
What  has  this  most  important  speculative  movement 
arrived  at  ?  It  seems  to  teach  nothing  other  than 
the  inaccessibleness  of  truth  for  man,  and  the  insight 
that  the  sum  of  all  knowledge  forms  the  confession 
— unknowable.  But  out  of  all  the  changes  and  trans- 
formations of  time  arises  clearly  the  one  dilemma : 
Either  the  striving  after  truth  points  to  some  kind 
of  existence  beyond  the  human  circle,  and  then  our 
inability  to  attain  a  direct  intercourse  with  the  things 
will  prove  itself  ever  anew  and  ever  clearer  ;  or  we 
create  the  whole  reality  out  of  our  thoughts,  and 
then  such  a  titanic  plunge  soon  breaks  into  pieces, 
and  the  overstrain  of  the  human  powers  will  take 
vengeance  through  the  increasing  emptiness  of  our 
existence. 

The  existence  of  a  science  can  tolerate  such  doubts 
well  enough  because  it  is  situated  in  the  ordinary  life, 
and,  through  untiring  toil,  it  ranges  itself  into  con- 
clusions. Science  can  extend  and  codify  incessantly 
results  only  in  so  far  as  it  stands  upon  an  average 
height  and  shuns  the  highest  summit  and  the  deepest 
abyss,  and  in  so  far  it  pushes  further  off  or  places  on 
one  side  the  problem  of  a  final  and  definite  truth. 
Such  is  a  kind  of  indispensable  compromise  and  no 
more,  which  has  to  take  place  in  the  co-operation  of 
the  work  of  science  and  in  the  continuance  of  life; 
and  to  see  the  solution  of  the  main  problem  within 
such  a  province  can  only  mean  a  self-satisfied  super- 
ficiality. As  soon  as  we  demand  to  pass  beyond  mere 
awareness  to  a  truthful  knowledge,  we  discover  our 
deplorable  poverty,  and  must  confess  thai  thai  winch 


104  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

is  termed  certain  seems  on    clearer   investigation  to 
rest  upon  a  totally  insecure  foundation. 

When  we  turn  to  the  realm  of  action,  the  matter 
appears  worse  than  in  the  realm  of  thought.  The 
moral  inadequacy  of  man  has  been,  as  we  saw,  an 
object  of  complaint  from  of  old,  but  the  complaint 
seems  often  to  have  forgotten  the  question,  whether 
the  "  given  "  and  benumbed  nature  of  man  is  able  in 
some  kind  of  way  to  handle  things  otherwise.  We 
cannot  act  without  motives,  and  these  adjust  them- 
selves to  the  good  striven  for,  but  a  good  for  us  can 
only  be  that  which  furthers  our  particular  will ; 
therefore  we  can  strive  only  for  ourselves  and  never 
for  some  external  existence.  In  particular,  it  is  our 
subjective  existence— our  particular  neutrality — which 
seeks  the  one  thing  and  flees  from  the  other  ;  to  speak 
of  effects  upon  this  condition  of  things  is,  to  our 
activity,  as  insoluble  as  our  knowledge  of  sense- 
presentations.  Pleasure  and  pain  drive  and  control 
our  life ;  they  may  be  refined  far  beyond  their  raw, 
sensuous  forms ;  and  our  subjectivity,  too,  binds  us 
to  great  refinement,  so  that  in  the  last  resort  we 
seem  to  act  for  nothing  other  than  our  own  par- 
ticular condition.  Also,  this  condition  may  inter- 
lace and  link  itself  to  the  world  and  man  around  us, 
in  the  most  varied  manner ;  we  may  imagine  that  we 
are  striving  not  so  much  for  our  own  welfare  as  for 
the  welfare  of  another ;  we  may  conclude,  in  order 
to  strengthen  such  an  opinion,  that  we  do  this  for 
another  because  it  promises  pleasure  and  has  already 
proved  itself  of  value  to  ourselves,  so  that  when  dealing 
with  the  seeming  external  we  are  really  always  dealing 
with  ourselves ;  we  thus  find  the  self,  in  the  furthest 


THE   COMPLEXITY   OF   HUMAN   LIFE         105 

remove  from  its  starting-point,  bound  in  its  own 
subjective  happiness,  and  linked  again  with  it  un- 
observed. All  transformation  and  seeming  excellence 
never  seem  to  yield  an  exit  from  that  embarrass- 
ment— never  bring  forth  a  transplanting  of  the  life 
into  the  realm  of  over-individual  and  over-subjective 
actions.  This  impossibility,  however,  is  the  strict 
demand  of  morality,  and  with  it  morality  stands  or 
falls.  This  demand  renders  impossible  the  enclosure 
of  man  within  the  web  of  his  own  small  self;  the 
demand  not  only  places  his  acts  under  definite  aims 
but  also  calls  him  to  mount  to  a  region  of  definite 
self-denying  love  ;  it  holds  its  message  before  him  not 
merely  as  an  agreeable  play  of  phantasy,  but  as  an 
imperative  problem  upon  whose  solution  the  content 
and  value  of  life  are  decided.  Thus  there  appears 
something  as  indispensable  which  is  not  yet  discovered  : 
it  does  not  reveal  itself,  and  the  problem  is  :  How 
may  we  discover  it  ? 

All  along  the  ages  thinkers  have  laboured  in  order 
to  try  to  solve  the  problem,  but  the  liberation  of 
man  from  himself  would  not  yield  to  any  proposed 
solution  ;  all  ardent  labours  have  alternately  entangled 
and  disentangled  the  skein,  and  the  goal  has  always 
receded  further  away.  On  the  summit  of  Greek  life 
the  good  attracted  man  on  account  of  its  inherent 
beauty  as  an  object  of  disinterested  welfare,  and  not 
on  account  of  its  utility  or  its  enjoyment ;  on  account 
of  its  powerful  influence  on  the  imagination  man 
seemed  to  win  the  good  and  the  beautiful.  Happiness 
(evSatfAovla)  welded  compactly  together  sensation  and 
act,  subject  and  object.  Hut  this  supposition  pos- 
sessed presuppositions  of  a  problematic  character;  it 


106  FUNDAMENTAL  RASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

reckoned  with  nature  conceived  as  great  and  noble ; 
it  interweaved  minutely  the  psychic  nature  of  the 
observer  with  the  objective  world,  and  placed  the 
increased  inwardness  of  life  as  something  inherent  in 
the  external  world.  But  the  question  was  not  raised, 
whether  this  refinement  of  nature  works  in  the 
direction  of  the  liberation  of  man  from  nature  itself 
and  from  egotistic  narrowness,  or  whether,  finally,  all 
such  attempts  do  not  end  in  the  mere  inclinations  of 
man.  However  hard  and  unfair  the  opinion  may  be 
that  "the  virtues  of  the  ancients  were  splendid  sins" 
{virtutes  veterum  splendida  vitia),  inconceivable  it  is  not. 
Christianity  has,  as  one  of  its  great  accomplish- 
ments, freed  morality  from  mere  nature,  and  with 
incomparably  greater  clearness  than  before  placed  the 
moral  problem  in  front  of  the  soul  of  man.  But  the 
solution  was  not,  on  account  of  this,  rendered  easier 
but  more  difficult.  Holding  all  human  ability  as 
useless,  there  remained  only  the  flight  to  a  miracle 
of  Divine  grace :  such  alone  could  create  a  new 
disinterested  life.  But  is  not  the  centre  of  gravity 
through  this  shifted  outside  us?  And  do  we  not 
sink  to  the  level  of  lifeless  instruments  and  mere 
indecisive  receptacles  of  Divine  decree  ?  Also,  it 
remains  in  darkness  how  such  a  regenerated  man 
could  escape  from  the  toils  and  tangles  of  his  own 
nature,  and  how  his  life  and  actions  could  free  them- 
selves from  subjective  conditions.  Christian  love  is 
much  praised,  but  it  is  often  forgotten  in  the  midst 
of  this  praise  to  ask  if  such  love  is  possible,  and  if  it 
really  exists.  Thus  the  knot  is  not  so  much  untied 
as  cut  asunder  ;  and  the  violence  of  the  solution  has, 
as  its  consequence,  the  oscillation,  on  the  one  side, 


THE   COMPLEXITY    OF   HUMAN   LIFE         107 

between  a  supernatural  view  brought  forth  through  a 
powerful  achievement  which  will  destroy  all  personal 
action  and  morality,  and  on  the  other  side,  an  ac- 
commodation in  the  egotism  of  his  own  nature  which 
falls  into  the  danger  of  relapsing  into  the  rear  of  the 
antiquated  solution  of  the  problem.  Is  it  no  relapse 
to  a  lower  level  when,  within  the  Christian  world, 
questions  concerning  rewards  and  punishments  occupy 
such  a  prominent  place  ? 

Also,  our  age  in  its  own  way  has  taken  up  the 
struggle  against  the  pettiness  of  the  natural  forms  of 
life.  Through  the  transformation  of  the  whole  man 
into  thought— into  an  objective  world-embracing 
thought— our  age  believes  itself  able  to  transform 
him  into  a  cosmic  nature  and  to  wrest  him  from  all 
his  embarrassments.  Here,  too,  such  liberative  process 
pushes  against  insurmountable  barriers.  A  thought 
and  life  born  of  external  things  desires  an  entry  into 
the  deepest  essence,  and  fancies  it  receives  it  in  all  the 
entanglements  of  the  problem  of  truth  ;  on  the  other 
hand,  the  doubt  is  raised  if  thought  by  itself  in  the 
overcoming  of  the  opposition  can  include  the  whole 
nature  of  man,  or  if  the  kingdom  of  thought,  in  all 
its  breadth  and  fulness,  docs  not  leave  unbroken  the 
egotistic  impulsive  life.  This  seems  to  be  the  case 
on  the  ordinary  level  of  our  modern  life  of  culture. 

All  in  ull  this  characteristic  movement  of  modern 
times  unveils  here  a  rough  dilemma.  If  the  aim  of 
the  good  is  clearly  grasped,  it  sprouts  through  the 
whole  soil  of  human  energy;  and  on  the  other  hand, 
a  mere  adjustment  of  things  to  our  own  nature  is 
nothing  less  than  an  inward  subversion  of  that  nature. 
Thus  each  alleged  conclusion  rapidly  transforms  itself 


108  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

into  a  problem,  and  increases  incessantly  the  distance 
between  us  and  the  goal  of  the  good. 

Human  society  has  not  prevented  such  sorrow  and 
toil  from  bringing  forth  a  certain  civic  honourable- 
ness  and  righteousness.  The  question  is,  how  much 
good  of  a  definite  nature  is  imbedded  in  the  attempt 
to  fold  together  the  interests  of  the  individual  into  a 
well-authorised  system,  and  place  such  interests  for 
reciprocal  movements  on  the  chess-board,  in  order 
to  make  possible  an  endurable  co-operative  life.  As 
much  as  this  is  certain,  that  where  conventional 
righteousness  exhibits  itself  as  the  one  true  and 
culminating  virtue,  deeper  natures  in  all  times  have 
handled  it  as  a  miserable  delusion  and  have  branded 
it  as  a  pernicious  pharisaism.  Only  such  human 
performances  satisfied  such  deeper  natures  as  took 
possession  of  the  aim  of  life  right  down  to  the  inward 
abandonment  of  all  that  is  base  ;  and,  meanwhile, 
with  a  strong  ardour  for  love  and  righteousness, 
thirsting  spirits  found  the  ordinary  level  of  life  as  a 
hollow  caricature.  What  is  true,  however,  of  the 
true  and  the  good  is  also  true  of  the  whole  of  the 
Spiritual  Life.  Such  a  life  holds  before  us  a  new  kind 
of  existence,  but  the  energy  to  reach  such  an  exist- 
ence it  verifies  not,  and  this  seems  in  no  way  verifi- 
able. But  if  such  a  conviction  of  our  inability  to 
verify  such  an  existence  takes  root,  it  transforms 
our  previously  possessed  aims  to  bare  illusions,  and 
consequently  all  confederate  work  falls  into  pieces. 
Is  the  situation  thus,  or  is  there  some  kind  of  help, 
some  kind  of  passable  exit  ? 

(7)  The  Insufficiency  of  an  Alleged  Remedy. — 
Modern  life  is  convinced  that  it  has  a  ready  exit  out 


THE   COMPLEXITY   OF   HUMAN   LIFE         109 

of  the  exposed  entanglements  upon  the  particular 
ground  of  experience  without  any  kind  of  trans- 
formation of  reality,  and  it  hopes  to  become 
equipped  to  deal  with  the  problem  by  holding  and 
overcoming  the  particular  energies  which  are  mis- 
placed in  the  problem.  The  solution  is  to  take  place 
through  a  belief  in  the  power  of  the  progressive 
evolution  of  humanity  aided  by  society  and  history — 
two  factors  which  the  modern  man  holds  out  against 
all  doubt,  and  which  enable  him  to  take  up  life  with 
a  joyous  courage.  That  such  a  course  of  thought,  as 
it  presents  itself  in  the  foreground,  is  peculiar  and 
problematic,  will  appear  clearer  as  we  proceed. 

Such  a  course  of  thought  understands  the  band 
of  society  and  history  as  the  convincing  energy  of 
the  Spiritual  Life.  Bred  in  the  chaos  of  individual 
opinions,  it  affirms  society  as  a  connecting  world  of 
thought,  and,  at  the  same  time,  develops  common 
aims  and  goods  over  against  the  bare  self-preservation 
of  the  individual.  But,  as  it  was  with  the  simul- 
taneity of  events,  so  is  it,  too,  with  succession — it 
engenders  a  combination  and  summing-up  of  energy  ; 
a  later  time  takes  over  the  achievements  of  an  earlier 
time ;  the  stones  of  the  building  fit  into  each  other 
and  rise  into  a  pyramid  of  civilisation  ;  the  succession 
of  generations  eliminates  the  transient  and  subsidiary, 
and  couples  and  fastens  the  essentials,  and  thus 
augments  the  fundamental  inheritance  of  our  domain. 
Thus  humanity  is  able  to  build  up  a  kingdom  of 
reason  far  beyond  the  capability  of  the  mere  in- 
dividual and  the  mere  moment ;  although  the  ideal 
is  certainly  not  reached  at  one  stroke,  yet,  little  by 
little,  it  is  brought  nearer  home. 


110  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

This  unbounded  ability  of  the  ascent  of  the  world 
of  experience  seems  to  render  superfluous  the  need  of 
splitting  of  reality  into  two  different  provinces.  For 
what  purpose,  then,  does  man  need  religion  when 
his  wishes  and  hopes,  little  by  little,  come  to  realisa- 
tion entirely  on  such  a  ground  ?  Thus  evolutionary 
thought  becomes  a  rugged,  and,  indeed,  a  most 
dangerous  enemy  of  religion. 

It  would  have  been  difficult  for  such  a  thought  to 
have  won  the  mind  of  modern  man  with  such  con- 
vincing power  had  it  not  been  that  there  stood  behind 
it  a  significant  new  tendency  of  the  life  of  civilisa- 
tion itself.  The  nineteenth  century  has  developed 
with  characteristic  energy  an  historical  point  of  view ; 
over  against  the  eighteenth  century  it  might  be 
designated  as  the  century  of  history.  Not  only  do 
we  occupy  ourselves  as  investigators  far  more  with 
the  past,  but  also  we  interlace  it  more  closely  with 
our  own  present  work;  we  seek  to  introduce  the 
inheritance  of  the  ages  into  our  work,  and  in  this 
manner  to  establish  a  richer,  clearer,  and  more  con- 
crete work.  Thus  it  is  in  law  and  religion,  in  science 
and  art.  At  the  same  time,  in  consequence  of  the 
easier  and  more  rapid  intercourse,  more  reciprocal 
relationships  and  co-operative  work  originate  ;  we  feel 
ourselves  more  closely  bound  and  connected  together ; 
we  experience  in  such  results  a  powerful  ascent  of 
our  abilities  over  against  all  earlier  times.  Such  an 
energetic  development  and  such  a  clear  consciousness 
of  historico-social  modes  of  life  make  it  conceivable 
how,  from  such  a  development,  the  results  of  the 
main  problem  may  be  expected. 

A  deeper  and  more  penetrating  reflection  is,  how- 


THE   COMPLEXITY   OF   HUMAN   LIFE         111 

ever,  necessary  in  order  to  read  more  correctly  that 
opinion  of  our  day,  and  in  order  to  perceive  that 
history  and  society  in  all  their  accomplishments  on 
the  periphery  of  life  heighten  rather  than  lessen  the 
problem  at  the  centre.  With  compelling  force  the 
following  dilemma  raises  its  head :  History  and 
Society  are  either,  as  evidences  of  the  mere  great- 
ness of  experience,  testimonies  of  a  confused  and  con- 
flicting situation  which  has  appeared  clearly  before 
our  eyes  ;  and  if  so,  history  and  society  participate 
in  the  entanglements  of  the  situation,  and  cannot 
raise  themselves  beyond  the  situation  or  inwardly 
free  themselves  from  it.  Or  there  results  in  history 
and  society  such  actual  effects  of  elevation  and 
freedom  ;  and  if  this  happens,  they  do  not  work  out 
of  their  own  energy,  but  there  is  imbedded  in  them 
a  superior  power  which  prepares  them  as  means  and 
ways.  Then  it  is  not  history  and  society  but  some- 
thing that  in  the  meantime  remains  completely  un- 
known that  consummates  the  transformation. 

What  gain  could  issue  out  of  the  recognition  that 
man,  as  lie  suffers  and  lives,  merely  links  himself  to 
his  equals  ?  The  energies  gather  themselves  together 
without  much  toil  in  their  action  upon  things:  whilst 
activities  perform  their  work  and  reciprocally  supple- 
ment and  Cold  themselves,  differentiate  and  par- 
ticularise themselves,  a  powerful  increase  of  behaviour 
and  a  thorough  consolidation  and  refinement  of  the 
work  are  accomplished.  This  work,  through  such 
inflation,  has  transformed  the  contour  of  our  existence 
and  drawn  our  life  more  and  more  into  its  own  vortex. 
Hut  does  such  an  advance  of  the  work  itself  signify 
the   gain    of   an    inward    harmony,  and    are    men    in 


112  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

conviction  and  character — in  the  whole  of  their 
beim*1 — brought  nearer  to  one  another,  so  that  the 
true  and  the  good  for  which  they  strive  become  easier 
and  gain  a  conquest  of  reason  over  all  the  dangers 
and  resistance  ?  Experience  on  this  point  reveals 
the  very  opposite.  A  growing  disunion  of  mind  is 
rendered  necessary  in  order  to  support  the  amalga- 
mation of  work  ;  we  observe  more  and  more  contrasts 
opening  out  amongst  men,  which  swell  to  ever  greater 
passion  and  hatred,  thus  causing  individual  to  stand 
against  individual,  vocation  against  vocation,  race 
against  race,  nation  against  nation,  empire  against 
empire.  When,  indeed,  was  humanity  so  full  of 
dissensions  as  to-day,  and  this  in  the  midst  of  all 
the  coherence  of  united  practical  work  ?  Also,  the 
admission  and  the  belief  themselves  do  not  verify  the 
statement  that  a  real  union  of  individuals  is  possible 
without  a  further  addition  of  reason,  or  that  through 
such  a  contact  with  one  another  a  fixed  truth  easily 
and  quickly  springs  forth.  If  we  view,  however,  our 
parliaments  and  the  great  gatherings  of  the  people, 
it  seems  clear  how  very  little  so-called  public  opinion 
is  able  to  differentiate  between  the  definite  and  the 
indefinite,  and  how  defenceless  it  falls  often  before 
robust  force,  and,  indeed,  even  before  audacity  and  a 
daring  to  plunder.  When  we  become  aware  of  this, 
we  shall  think  less  confidently  of  the  alleged  summa- 
tion of  truth.  There  is,  indeed,  no  joyous  activity  for 
humanity  without  a  trust  in  some  kind  of  conquest  of 
reason  in  its  own  sphere,  but  this  conquest  must  be 
something  other  than  the  gain  of  the  ordinary  and 
the  commonplace ;  and  when  such  a  conquest  comes 
to  its  own,  a  different  kind  of  truth-energy  must  sway 


THE   COMPLEXITY   OF   HUMAN   LIFE         113 

humanity  than  that  which  lies  in  the  opinions  and 
interests  of  individuals  and  masses.  Also,  the  evident 
strengthening  of  the  convictions  and  tendencies  of 
human  society  gives  not  the  slightest  security  for  their 
actual  truth.  And,  too,  stubborn  errors  can  strike 
here  their  fast  roots,  and  with  a  kind  of  sacred 
authority  grow  from  generation  to  generation.  Later 
times  revere  then  calmly  the  undisputed  truth  which 
the  tradition  of  the  centuries  had  sanctioned.  But 
this  sanction  is  of  a  purely  human  kind  ;  and  if  there 
stands  not  something  more  than  human  behind  it, 
sooner  or  later  the  day  must  dawn  when  the  usurpa- 
tion is  seen  through  and  the  alleged  truth  is  stripped 
of  its  deception.  And  then  a  powerful  upheaval 
results,  and  each  and  every  truth  falls  lightly  into 
doubt. 

These  considerations  lead  into  the  province  and 
problem  of  history.  Here,  also,  a  significant 
achievement  is  unmistakable  ;  but  the  question  is,  if 
such  achievement,  through  what  it  receives  from  the 
doctrine  of  evolution,  is  able  to  create  a  definite 
cleavage  between  reason  and  unreason  and  to  possess 
the  security  of  a  growing  mastery  of  reason.  In 
certain  respects  there  results  evidently  an  increase  of 
material  as  well  as  a  progressive  adjustment  of  work  ; 
this  is  to  be  witnessed  in  the  exact  and  positive 
sciences  and  in  technics.  What  the  particular  move- 
ment here  achieves  is  a  gain  in  the  duration  of  its 
material,  and  in  the  linking  together  of  epochs  into 
an  unbroken  chain  of  activity  and  production.  Rut 
will  this  bond  of  union  be  reached  if  the  inner  exist- 
ence and  convictions  of  mail  are  laid  on  one  side,  if 
the  question  of  absolute  truth  remains  in  the  back- 


1 14  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

ground,  it'  the  activity  revolves  around  the  circumfer- 
ence and  not  around  the  centre  of  life  ?  Was  the 
historical  movement  a  progressive  gain  in  spiritual 
substance  ?  Has  it  incessantly  clarified  our  funda- 
mental relationship  to  reality,  and  overcome  the 
previously  explained  contradictions  of  our  nature  ? 
Have  we  become  greater,  nobler,  happier  men,  and 
lias  the  daily  life  transmuted  itself  into  a  kingdom  of 
reason?  Our  particular  consideration  of  the  struggle 
for  the  true  and  the  good  has  already  given  us  a 
decisive  answer  ;  the  seeming  near-at-hand  solutions 
proved  themselves  insufficient,  and  when  we  dive 
ever  deeper  into  the  entangled  abyss,  we  discover  an 
ever  greater  cleft  between  wish  and  capacity.  More 
and  more  our  life  tears  itself  away  from  a  naive 
standpoint  and  seeks  new  paths.  But  the  energy  of 
the  denial  corresponds  not  to  that  of  the  affirmation  : 
energies  and  movements  are  found  in  abundance, 
but  no  definite  aim  which  governs,  fastens,  and  raises 
them. 

The  strenuous  efforts  with  the  past  and  the  develop- 
ment of  a  historical  consciousness  must  heighten  the 
impression  of  this  situation ;  what  these  efforts  gain 
in  knowledge  threatens  to  overbalance  in  the  loss  to 
life.  When  a  keen  outlook  on  history  presents  before 
us  the  multi-coloured  abundant  material  of  human 
striving,  and  when  it  shows  alternately  slow  and  rapid 
changes  and  transformations  of  ideals  and  their  ever 
fragile  nature — material  which  the  man  had  achieved 
with  toil  and  which  had  filled  his  soul — then  the 
question  raises  itself  imperatively,  whether  all  human 
toil  for  truth  and  reason  is  a  labour  in  vain.  With 
what  right  may  we  hold  and  defend  truths  as  being 


THE   COMPLEXITY    OF   HUMAN   LIFE         115 

definite  and  settled  simply  because  they  were  so  in 
earlier  times,  but  which  are  now  seen  through  as  errors  ? 
The  Indian  words,  "  We  were  what  you  are,  you  shall 
become  what  we  are,"  should  recall  us  to  the  realisation 
of  the  penumbra  of  such  relative  truths. 

Let  us  consider  impartially  the  situation  of  the 
present.  Historical  inquiry  stands  in  magnificent 
blossom,  it  extends  its  kingdom  ever  onward,  and  ever 
more  accurately  it  explores  its  ramifications.  More 
accurate,  indeed,  than  we  realise  is  the  validity  of 
truth  to  the  great  investigator.  But  do  we  gain,  with 
all  our  insight,  a  more  secure  support  for  that  which  is 
valid  to  us  as  truth  ?  And  are  we  not  inwardly  poor 
in  the  midst  of  this  overflowing  kingdom  ?  Or,  one 
indicates  to  us  a  particular  positive  truth — a  funda- 
mental truth  for  life  and  existence — which  is  carried 
to  us  on  the  current  of  history.  The  insight  that  all 
is  to  be  conceived  as  in  a  process  of  flux,  and  that  all 
the  later  comes  under  the  influence  of  the  former,  is 
not  likely  to  make  valid  the  belief  in  a  particular  truth 
in  the  sense  referred  to. 

This  joyous  belief  in  history  has  an  hypothesis 
which  it  cannot  verify  and  which  soon  suffers  a  shock. 
This  belief  accepts  as  true  that  the  movement  of 
humanity  from  of  yore  has  transmuted  itself  into  the 
elements  of  reason,  and  that  through  this  the  move- 
ment possesses  an  unassailable  foundation,  and  con- 
sequently is  able  to  erect  its  structure  step  by  step. 
But  reason  is  not  a  ready-made  thing  given  to  us,  but 
presents  itself  to  us  as  a  task  ;  doubts  and  strife  ever 
anew  draw  us  back,  and  the  reasonable  character  of  the 
whole  turns  again  and  again  into  doubt..  And  on 
account  of  this,  our  belief  in  such  an  evolution  falls 


116  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

to  the  ground.  Such  a  denial  signifies  in  no  manner 
a  complete  transmission  of  history  into  unreason. 
But  if  any  kind  of  reason  works  in  history,  it  must 
originate  out  of  an  over-empirical  and  over-historical 
source  ;  and  such  a  source  will  hardly  find  its  highest 
aim  in  a  superstructure  of  the  kingdom  of  history. 
History  can  never,  out  of  its  own  capacity,  create  pure 
reason,  but  remains  a  turbid  mixture  of  little  reason 
and  much  unreason. 

The  untenableness  of  the  evolution  theory  also 
is  corroborated  through  its  own  history.  This 
history  shows  it  as  a  testimony  of  various  kinds  of 
thought-procedure  and  afflicted  with  an  inward  con- 
tradiction. Modern  thought  believed  itself  to  have 
grasped  directly,  through  the  ascending  scale  of  life, 
an  absolute  truth,  and  to  be  able  to  carry  this  truth 
fully  into  the  human  province.  Such  a  course  of 
thought  took  up,  first  of  all,  a  tendency  against  history, 
and  placed  the  explanations  of  its  discovery  before  a 
powerful  tribunal  of  reason  ;  there  resulted,  however, 
in  a  calmer  mood,  the  view  that  history  should  be 
conceived  as  a  revelation  of  reason — indeed,  it  was 
conceived  as  a  gradual  evolution  of  the  whole  of 
reason.  History  appeared  to  such  a  mental  procedure 
not  so  much  as  that  which  is  able  to  engender  reason 
out  of  itself,  but  as  that  which  is  encircled  and  carried 
along  its  course  by  a  timeless  reason,  thus  placing 
the  main  standard  of  life  not  within  but  above  Time. 
Then  followed  the  change  to  immediate  existence 
through  the  realism  of  the  nineteenth  century ;  and 
to  that  change  the  over-historical  life  became  a  mere 
illusion  and  bare  impossibility ;  history  was  placed 
entirely  upon  the  ground  of  natural  immediate  ex- 


THE   COMPLEXITY    OF   HUMAN   LIFE         117 

perience.     But  through  this  happened  what  signifies 
the  modern  view  of  life  :  the  old  view  is  fundamentally 
rejected,  but  the  claim  is  to  be  rightly  maintained  that 
the  new  view  is  able  to  perform  less  than  was  thought 
possible.     The  historical  movement  should  be  under- 
stood  more   on  its  empirical  side,  but,  at  the  same 
time,  it  appears  as  a  witness  of  reason  which  held 
unswervingly  to  a  belief  in  the  strong  reign  of  law,  in 
an  incessant  ascent,  and  in  a  progressive  conquest  of 
the  good.     Such  a  mixture  of  different  kinds  of  mental 
procedure   tends   necessarily    to    a   blunting    of  the 
problem,  and  obscures  the  sharp  Eitlier — Or  which 
doubtless  lies  here  ;  and  the  mixture  becomes  a  serious 
danger  to  the  energy  and  truth  of  life.     This  danger 
is  rapidly  growing  on  all  sides,  and  the  doctrine  of 
evolution  on  its  empirical  side,  with  its  confidence  in 
the  culture  of  society  and  in  history,  has  now  reached 
the  masses.     But  on  the  height  of  spiritual  activity 
such  a  doctrine  has  been  broken  and  overcome.     The 
untenableness  and  even  the  destructive  energy  of  the 
limiting  of  life  within  the  merely  human  area  appear 
constantly  before  us.     Where  man  sinks  wholly  into 
the  relationship  of  the  human  environment,  where  his 
anxiety  for  his  position  in  the  mere  simultaneity  and 
succession  of  things  allows  him  to  forget  all  else,  then 
he  loses  in  inward  independence,  in  depth  of  soul,  and 
becomes  inevitably  a  shallow  and  babbling  nature  in 
which    finally  all    characteristic    life  and  all  truthful 
present    consciousness    disappear.      We  witness  with 
painful   clearness   to-day  a    strong   decline  of  inward 
culture  ;  more  and  more,  leading  minds  fail  in  creative 
power;  ever  less  does  man  find   definite  satisfaction 
in    all  the    bustle  of   our    modern    mechanism  ;  ever 


118  FUNDAMENTAL  IUSIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

more  is  the  inward  life  lowered  in  its  pitch  to  the 
commonplace ;  and  ever  clearer  it  becomes  apparent 
that  all  the  gain  on  the  periphery  of  life  cannot 
counterbalance  the  loss  which  occurs  at  the  centre. 
In  the  last  resort,  it  is  true  that  we  live  our  existence 
from  out  the  centre,  and  although  this  fact  may  be 
forgotten  in  our  relationship  to  the  environment,  it 
can  never  be  permanently  lost.  If,  therefore,  the 
proffered  solution  of  the  evolutionary  theory  fails,  the 
main  question  faces  us  again  with  a  harsh  distinct- 
ness :  Either  the  complete  surrender  of  reason  and, 
along  with  this,  an  inward  subversion  of  life,  or  an 
ascent  beyond  the  ordinary  level  and  a  new  tendency 
which  not  only  grapples  strongly  with  the  contra- 
dictions, but  also  lifts  the  inward  life  out  of  them  and 
sets  that  life  to  work  against  all  obstacles.  It  is  a 
great  gain  in  the  midst  of  all  the  chaos  of  the  present 
time  to  realise  that  all  attempts  to  run  away  from  this 
dilemma  are  more  and  more  seen  through  as  a  delusive 
hybridisation  of  life. 


PART  II.— THE  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF 
UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

(Continued) 

CHAPTER  VII 

b.  The  Progressive  Autonomy  of  the 
Spiritual  Life 

Hitherto  the  movement  in  the  direction  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  appeared  as  a  particularly  difficult 
contradiction.  The  Spiritual  Life  presented  great 
problems,  and  we  find  in  ourselves  no  energy  for 
their  solution  ;  it  demanded  a  cosmic  character  and 
yet  the  narrowness  of  the  self  coerced  it ;  it  promised 
a  clarification  of  existence  and  yet  it  was  the  first 
to  bring  the  darkness  of  existence  prominently 
before  us.  A  contradiction  which  comes  suddenly 
upon  the  inmost  kernel  of  life  allows  itself  not  to  be 
placed  cil inly  on  one  side — at  least  not  for  a  strong 
nature  with  its  corresponding  strong  thought.  If 
the  aims  of  life  arc  simply  unreachable,  every  attempt 
to  reach  them  must  be  excluded,  and  they  must 
vanish  out  of  our  existence  as  deceitful  illusions. 
But  we,  at  the  same  time,  dare  not  allow  so  much  to 
perish,  for  all  this  exhibited  what  gives  eminence  to 
man  above  all  else,  and  what  constitutes  the  good 
and  the  noble  in  his  life  in  (act,  what  constitutes 
all  the  inner  onward  movement  of  humanity  and  all 

119 


120  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

the  meaning  and  content  of  life.  Ts  such  a  complete 
collapse  inevitable,  and  does  no  path  offer  itself  to 
meet  the  catastrophe  ? 

There  is  one  and  only  one  possibility.     The  final 
cause    of  the   contradiction    consisted    in   affirming 
that  the  Spiritual  Life  appeared  as  an  activity  of  the 
mere  individual  self,  and  that  it  was  bound  up  in  the 
situation  and  custom  of  this  self.     Man  forms  out  of 
his   surrounding   conditions   a  special  province  over 
against   the  great   All ;    reality  stands  over   against 
him    as   something  alien,  and   his   life   appears  as  a 
pendulum  swinging  between  his  own  particular  pro- 
vince and   this  great  All   of  things.     Things   being 
thus,  if  the  Spiritual  Life  is  called  to  bridge  inwardly 
the  gulf,  to  unfold  the  infinite  on  a  definite   point, 
the  impossibility  of  such  an   achievement   becomes 
evident,  and  all  attempts  will  be  wrecked  on  the  rocks 
of  the  contradiction.     This  intolerable  situation  is  to 
be  escaped  only  if  the  Spiritual  Life  were  not  railed 
simply  within  the  human  province  ;  if  it  contributed 
in  some  kind  of  way  to  the  winning  of  an  independence 
and  of  a   power  to   draw  reality  into  itself;   and  if 
it  were  able  from  within  to  expand  and  become  a 
universe  of  its  own.     Through  this  the  Spiritual  Life 
would  be  raised  above  the  opposites  ;  man  would  win, 
through  his  participation  in  the  new  life,  freedom  from 
the  narrowness   of  his  subjective  existence  ;    and  in 
that  which  at  first   seemed   to   oppress   him — as   an 
unfulfilled  demand  from  without — he  seeks  and  finds 
the    inmost   nature   of  his   true    self.     For   the   in- 
sufficiency and  even  the  contradiction  of  life  within 
the  mere-human  circle  reveal  themselves  ever  clearer. 
Then   an   activity  of  a  spiritual  order  is   no  longer 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    121 

satisfied  to  accept  languidly  a  rigid  and  indifferent 
kind  of  existence  which  accrues  from  the  mere 
motive-powers,  but  is  able  to  penetrate  to  the  depth 
of  one's  own  nature  and  to  attain  to  the  might  and 
ardour  of  self-affirmation.  Thus  the  opposition  of 
subject  and  object,  of  one's  own  individual  standpoint 
and  one's  external  material,  can  be  taken  up  into  the 
Life-process  itself  and  here  overcome.  If  this  hap- 
pens, there  results  a  hope  of  such  an  illumination  over 
the  whole  meaning  of  the  Spiritual  Life  which  was 
not  possible  so  long  as  that  Life  signified  only  a 
particular  speck  of  a  universe  of  chaff  and  dust.  In 
brief,  an  avenue  opens  in  a  new  and  opposite  direction, 
provided  that  the  possibility  of  such  a  Life  is  more 
than  a  mere  possibility,  and  provided  that  it  reveals 
a  corresponding  reality. 

All  continuation  of  life's  movement  and  all  success 
depend  on  the  existence  of  such  a  reality.  The 
many  problems  and  entanglements  connected  with 
the  existence  of  such  a  reality  constitute  a  further 
question :  in  the  first  place,  it  is  necessary  that  our 
anxiety  concerning  that  question  should  not  blind  us 
to  the  real  fact  itself.  The  attention  must  be  set  on 
this  fact  alone,  and  set  against  any  incidental  reflec- 
tion which  prevents  us  from  storming  this  new  path, 
for  this  is  not  a  pert  merriment  in  knight-errantry  but 
that  which  Goethe  named  as  the  best  of  counsellors- 
Necessity. 

That  a  new  actuality,  however,  of  an  independent 
kind  rises  in  us  becomes  more  and  more  evident; 
through  this  we  seek  to  effect  an  emancipation  of 
the  life  from  the  Small  self  and  from  the  petty-human 
level,  in  order   that  we    may    overcome    the    inward 


1522  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

opposition  and  gain  a  new  self.  Our  object  in  this 
work  will  be  to  survey  the  whole  of  this  new  life, 
to  estimate  its  significance,  and  to  examine  its  trans- 
formation in  its  view  of  the  world  and  of  life. 


1.    The  Several  Stages 

(a)  The  Emancipation  of  Life  from  the  small  self 
and  the  merely  human  order. — All  spiritual  manifes- 
tation appears  first  of  all  so  vague  in  the  isolated 
individual,  and  we  need  only  view  such  manifestation 
from  its  content  in  order  to  verify  the  fact  that  it 
forms  new  connections  which  produce  transformations 
upon  the  individual.  We  observe  the  Spiritual  Life 
always  linking  the  elements  into  a  Whole;  the 
separate  elements  come  together  not  only  from  with- 
out, but  bind  and  complete  themselves,  too,  from 
within ;  within  this  embracing  Whole  each  special 
act  has  to  seek  its  location  and  to  prove  its  significance. 
It  is  most  distinctly  so  in  science,  and  it  is  so 
wherever  movement  of  thought  extends — we  find 
everywhere  a  change  from  mere  bare  aggregate  to  a 
system,  everywhere  general  movement  and  dependence 
of  the  individual  upon  the  Whole.  Life,  through  such 
an  extension,  alters  itself  as  well  in  its  single  states. 
Life  thus  appears,  in  so  far  as  it  is  of  a  spiritual 
kind,  not  as  a  matter  of  the  mere  individual,  or  as 
something  pivoted  on  its  own  special  point ;  but 
what  the  individual  obtains  through  great  effort 
carries  in  itself  the  assertion  to  all  others  of  its  validity 
and  power  to  bring  something  of  value  to  all,  and 
attempts  to  demand  from  all  a  recognition  of  its 
claims.     Truth   is  ever   a   matter   for   the  whole   of 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    123 

humanity  and  never  a  private  possession ;  in  the 
assertion  of  truth  the  individual  may  feel  himself 
as  a  representative,  indeed,  as  a  tool  of  the  Whole, 
and  through  this  inward  presence  of  the  Whole  he 
is  lifted  out  of  the  chances  and  changes  of  his 
individual  position.  Springing  from  his  work  an 
inward  necessity  issues  its  call,  that  what  he  with 
labour  achieved  can  become  the  possession  of  all ;  and 
that  such  a  possession  particularly  gives  activity  its 
tenacity  and  success  its  joy. 

The  Life-process,  however,  could  barely  grow  above 
the  severance  of  individual  from  individual  did  there 
not  lie  in  it,  on  the  whole,  a  superiority  above  the 
mere  human  and  above  the  web  of  external  presenta- 
tions and  interests.  Thought  with  its  truth  could  not 
possess  the  certainty  of  its  validity  for  all  men  if 
it  did  not  hold  valid  over  against  all  men  ;  it  could 
win  no  inward  present  moment  with  man  without 
the  initiation  if  not  the  culmination  of  a  transforma- 
tion in  himself.  The  independence  of  truth  from 
all  human  opinions  and  "  may-bes "  has  constituted 
since  the  time  of  Plato  the  basal  confession  of 
science ;  however  riddlesome  the  matter  may  be 
the  conviction  will  not  allow  itself  to  give  up  the 
belief  that  truths  originate  in  a  sphere  which  lies 
beyond  the  mechanical  work  of  ideas  in  the  brain  ; 
man  does  not  engender  such  truths,  but  discovers 
them  ;  and  they  are  not  measured  by  him,  but  he 
is  measured  by  them.  It  is  from  such  a  source 
alone  thai  the  joyous  belief  in  the  power  of  truth, 
which   inspires    all   striving,    interprets    itself;  and   it 

is  out  of  such  a  belief  that  the  energy  is  available 

to  stand,  if  necessary,  against  the  whole  environment, 


124  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

and  to  feel  one's  self  on  the  side  of  the  right  against 
all  others,  and  also  to  take  up  courageously  the 
struggle  against  deep-rooted  errors  in  all  their  forms. 
Indeed,  man  becomes  a  problem  to  himself;  he  can 
examine  and  sift,  and  with  longing  and  energy  strive 
after  a  transformation  of  life.  Thus,  there  results 
through  the  living  power  of  the  truth-content  a 
rearrangement  in  man's  whole  view  of  things.  On 
the  one  hand,  truth  shall  be  held  valid  not  as 
one's  own  individual  opinion  but  as  a  thing  in  itself; 
and  on  the  other  hand,  truth  is  accessible  within 
one's  own  individual  life  alone.  Thus  there  exists 
and  works  in  man  something  more  than  human,  and 
consequently  he  does  not  become  a  mere  bottled- 
up  kind  of  vessel. 

Similarly  as  shows  itself  the  movement  from  mere 
opinion  to  truth,  shows  itself  the  movement  from 
utility  to  the  good.  The  useful  corresponds  to  the 
material  of  the  natural  or  social  self-preservation,  and 
is  able  within  a  given  province  to  maintain  and  to 
improve  its  particular  situation  ;  evidently  here  the 
effort  governs  the  broad  ordinary  level  of  human 
existence.  But  the  effort  is  not  able  to  accomplish 
this  without  opposition.  Man  can  have  no  choice 
but  to  feel  the  useful,  with  its  natural  and  social 
self-preservation,  as  indispensable ;  and  he  has  no 
choice  either  but  to  see  that  all  proffered  happiness  is 
too  narrow  and  petty,  and  to  long  for  wider  and 
nobler  aims.  It  is  something  of  this  nature  that 
comes  to  expression  in  the  idea  of  the  good  ;  in  such 
an  idea  something  is  aspired  after  which  raises  man 
beyond  his  easy  smugness  ;  what  appears  to  him  now 
of  value  is  to  be  found  through  struggle  and  pain, 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    125 

and  stands  in  direct  opposition  to  the  aims  of  his 
mere  natural  welfare.  If  such  an  idea  of  the  good 
operates  as  a  gravitating  force  on  man,  if  it  wins  his 
particular  energy  and  conviction,  therefore  it  must  be 
something  grounded  in  his  very  nature,  something 
which  proves  this  nature  to  be  more  than  a  mere 
increase  of  an  intelligence  which  issued  out  of  the 
endowed  animal  world.  What  is  gained  here  through 
emancipation  from  the  ordinary  effortless  situation  and 
from  the  small  human  mode  of  life  finds  its  richest 
expression  in  the  fact  of  morality.  It  is  true  that  we 
are  aware  to-day  of  manifold  opinions  concerning  the 
content  of  morality,  yet  its  slow  "  becoming  "  on  the 
field  of  humanity  appears  to  us  clearer  than  to  former 
times,  but  the  primal  phenomenon  of  morality  asserts 
itself  victoriously  against  the  one  time  as  against  the 
other.  Though  the  realisation  of  the  good  may  be 
a  difficult  problem  and  may  rend  asunder  peoples  and 
epochs,  yet  the  fact  remains  that  in  all  places  and  at 
all  times  of  the  historical  consciousness  something 
appeals  as  binding  and  as  a  law  above  mere  arbitrary 
action,  something  which  abandons  the  mere  standard 
of  utility.  What  one,  however,  accentuates  and 
reveres  as  a  good  is  not  some  one  thing  lying  by  the 
side  of  other  things,  but  something  considered  as  a 
sovereign  swaying  tiling  which  demands  universal 
recognition.  If,  further,  the  good  in  man  has  climbed 
slowly  from  faint  beginnings  to  a  persistent  clearness, 
what  lias  altered  its  nature  ?  True,  the  good  is  in 
that  movement  often  drawn  closer  to  the  useful,  and 
seems,  indeed,  to  issue  entirely  out  of  the  useful. 
But  all  this  confusion  of  the  two  currents  of  the  good 
and  the  useful  in  man  lessens  in  no  wise  the  distance 


V26  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

between  their  different  natures ;  for  however  much 
the  useful  may  receive  by  an  appearance  of  good,  to 
become  the  good  itself  is  impossible  for  it.  It  is  true 
that  in  regard  to  the  good  the  movement  seems  to 
proceed  from  outward  inward  ;  much  of  the  good 
which  seems  to  ascend  directly  from  within  has  been 
imported  from  the  social  environment,  education, 
custom,  and  other  sources.  But  even  here  the  in- 
ward assimilation  and  the  acceptation  into  one's  will 
remain  as  a  special  act — as  an  independent  achieve- 
ment ;  all  the  effects  from  without  would  glide  in 
vain  as  over  a  hard  rock,  or  could  not  pass  beyond  a 
clever  parrot's  prattle,  had  not  such  effects  awakened 
an  inherent  consciousness  in  human  nature.  The 
initial  custom  can  become  a  moral  activism,  but  so 
long  as  it  remains  a  mere  custom  and  nothing  more, 
it  is  not  yet  moral.  What,  however,  may  be  desig- 
nated as  moral  suffers  in  value  the  moment  it  is 
considered  as  a  testimony  of  bare  custom. 

Morality  thus  remains  an  unconquerable  primal 
phenomenon  of  the  Spiritual  Life.  In  the  Spiritual 
Life,  however,  there  lies  an  entire  transformation 
of  human  nature  as  well  as  the  most  fundamental 
emancipation  from  the  smallness  of  the  mere  natural 
order.  When  it  turns  away  from  the  "  ends "  of 
natural  self-preservation,  and  turns  towards  the  ab- 
soluteness of  its  demands,  morality  appears  first  of 
all  as  an  overlaying  imperative  and  brings  into  birth 
such  characteristic  greatness  as  "  the  ought,"  duty,  and 
law.  It  appears  usually,  in  consequence,  to  the  re- 
ligious conviction  as  a  revelation  of  a  world  "  beyond  " 
and  as  a  Divine  injunction  to  man.  But  such  a 
meaning  includes  one  side  only  of  the  fact  and  needs 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    127 

necessarily  a  completion  ;  if  that  "  beyond  "  does  not 
in  some  kind  of  way  transplant  itself  into  a  "  here 
and  now,"  the  purity  of  morality  is  cast  into  the 
greatest  peril.  What  works  upon  us  from  the  external 
only  could  not  move  the  soul  in  any  other  way  than 
through  the  holding  out  of  consequences — through 
the  promise  of  reward  and  the  threat  of  punishment. 
Through  this,  however,  man  would  be  thrown  back 
upon  the  position  from  which  morality  should  free 
itself,  and  the  narrow  circle  within  him  would  not  be 
broken  through.  Man  can  unfold  his  own  activities 
only  in  so  far  as  they  appertain  to  his  own  particular 
nature ;  the  law,  in  which  these  activities  appear, 
must  be  an  inward  self-willed,  self-given  law.  Such 
an  assimilation  of  morality  in  our  own  existence  is, 
however,  impossible  unless  a  growth  in  the  inward 
parts  beyond  the  small  self  takes  place,  and  unless 
morality  casts  asunder  the  notion  of  a  coercion.  An 
"  ought "  which  we  ourselves  help  to  found  must  carry 
in  itself  a  will — perhaps  a  will  lying  far  behind  the 
passing  moment;  and  such  an  "ought"  must,  too, 
labour  lor  the  emancipation  and  the  expression  of  life. 
As  every  energetic  Nay  hid  in  itself  a  Yea,  so  is 
morality  in  the  denial  of  the  old  at  the  same  time  an 
affirmation  of  the  new;  in  its  onward  march  on  this 
positive  path  morality  grows  to  a  self-affirmation,  and 
wins  a  portion  in  all  of  ail  inward  and  abiding  affection 
of  a  strong  and  joyous  kind. 

The  testimony  of  experience  corroborates  this  with 
a  clear  voice.  It  refutes  from  its  very  foundation  thai 
which  perceives  only  an  abandonment  and  denial,  a 
diminution  and  depression  of  existence,  in  moral 
activity;  and  denies  as  well  thai   which  bewails  the 


128  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

creative  evil  of  human  activity.  The  denial  was  not 
at  all  of  a  definite  moral  kind  when  it  proceeded 
out  of  an  unwilling  and  coercive  frame  of  mind  ;  for 
love  and  joy  failed  it,  and  consequently  it  had  in  an 
inward  manner  no  value.  Humanity,  indeed,  in  its 
energetic  moral  movement  stands  in  no  way  dependent 
on  the  perception  of  limits  and  pressure,  and  it  does 
not  feel  itself  timid  and  humble,  but  experiences  and 
perceives  a  raising  of  its  own  nature  in  all  its  struggles 
and  sorrows.  Thrown  back,  as  it  were,  upon  the 
primal  source  of  its  own  energy,  it  could  feel  itself 
secure  in  the  midst  of  monstrous  doubt,  rich  in  the 
midst  of  external  poverty,  a  free  lord  of  things  though 
surrounded  by  powerful  oppression  ;  and  in  its  seem- 
ing setting  and  even  collapse  it  is  able  to  herald  the 
dawn  of  a  new  spirit,  a  new  life,  and  a  new  world. 

How,  in  the  memory  of  humanity,  stand  the  men 
whom  we  most  have  to  thank  for  the  development  of 
the  ideal  world  of  morals,  and  in  what  did  they  find 
the  kernel  of  their  work — men  such  as  Plato,  the 
Stoics,  Luther,  Kant,  and  Fichte  ?  Were  they  small, 
nervous,  depressed  natures,  or  were  they  rather  free 
and  energetic  natures — heroes  of  the  spirit  ?  Brutal 
men  of  power  they  were  certainly  not,  for  their 
freedom  carried  in  itself  a  shrinkage  of  the  mere  self, 
and  it  was  clear  to  them  beyond  any  doubt  that  there 
was  no  affirmation  of  a  spiritual  kind  without  a  denial 
of  their  bare  natural  existence. 

Morality  could  become  a  power  and  reality  in 
the  common  life  only  through  such  an  energy  of 
affirmation.  And  it  has  become  that  in  spite  of  all 
the  contradictions  of  daily  life  and  in  spite  of  all 
the  scorn    of  opponents.     However   much   morality 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    129 

remains  usually  in  the  background,  it  needs  only 
greater  stimulus,  compulsion,  and  emotion,  to  break 
forth  with  rapturous  energy  as  an  independent  force, 
and  consequently  to  unlock  through  its  own  energy  a 
new  nature  to  man,  and  to  offer  him  a  fixed  support 
and  a  reliable  succour.  All  such  blossoming  epochs 
invariably  blew  over  humanity  a  renewal  of  the 
religious  life  ;  and  then  the  nothingness  of  all  mere 
natural  and  social  existence  was  perceived  with 
painful  perspicuity  as  the  deep  abyss  in  which  all 
human  life  and  effort  became  fully  visible.  But  even 
in  the  denial  of  all  customary  help,  and,  indeed,  in 
the  submersion  of  the  whole  existing  world,  the 
conviction  of  the  indestructibility  of  our  inmost 
nature  unfolds  itself  with  overwhelming  energy, 
and  out  of  the  collapse  of  all  the  customary  hunt 
after  happiness  there  dawns  the  hope  and  even  the 
certainty  of  a  newer,  more  definite,  and  purer  bliss. 
Particular  nations  have  shown  themselves  capable 
of  a  deepening  and  transforming  power  in  kindred 
directions  when  their  very  independence  was  in 
danger,  and  when  they  had  to  fight  for  their  exist- 
ence or  non-existence.  Also,  the  movement  and  the 
renewal  reached  into  the  smaller  circle  of  private 
life  ;  here,  indeed,  where  all  external  lustre  and 
renown  of  historical  acts  fail,  where  all  the  fortified 
energy  of  society  tails,  the  greatest  heroism  may  yet 
develop,  full  of  ardent  love  and  joyous  self-denial. 
Thus  arc  the  pessimists  and  sceptics  wrong  through- 
out when  they  assert  that  the  matter  is  done  with 
and  ended  in  the  downfall  of  the  sham  appearances 
in  which  daily  life  and  the  common  impulses  had 
wrapped  themselves.      For  behind  the  standard  which 


180  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

rules  that  thought  lies  a  further  standard  ;  behind 
that  mechanism  of  life  lies  a  depth  which  holds  its 
own  against  all  the  stir  and  strife  of  the  small  and 
common  on  the  highways  of  human  life.  Without 
this  activity  of  its  present  moment  of  consciousness, 
human  existence  must  fall  to  pieces.  All  energetic 
activity  for  humanity  relies  upon  this  depth,  and 
comprehends  a  belief  in  the  possibility  of  an  inward 
renewal.  The  same  may  be  said  of  all  great  practical, 
political,  social,  and  educational  manifestations. 
These  alone  give  man  an  inexhaustible  possession 
which  he  seizes  in  all  his  dire  need.  All  culture  which 
flings  away  this  depth  through  deprecation  of  mor- 
ality robs  itself  of  indispensable  motive-powers,  and 
becomes  in  the  whole  of  its  existence,  in  spite  of  its 
otherwise  brilliant  performances,  shallow  and  hollow  ; 
it  threatens  to  fall  into  decay  unless  it  possesses  that 
which  gives  salt  to  life  and  which  turns  the  will  from 
mere  natural  impulse. 

Morality  is  thus  in  its  seeming  weakness  a  mighty 
power,  and  is  in  its  seeming  strangeness  the  most 
original  energy  of  our  life.  When,  however,  that 
which  otherwise  stands  outside  us  is  taken  into  the 
will,  when  a  new  order  of  things — an  infinity — drives 
the  man  from  within  so  that  nevermore  does  he  seem 
to  stand  alone,  but  seems  as  if  carried  by  a  majestic 
Hood  of  life,  then  clearly  results  a  deliverance  from 
the  small  self,  and  a  cosmic  life,  a  superhuman  life, 
reveals  itself  actively  in  the  form  of  immediacy. 

Morality  is  in  all  this  not  a  particular  province  of  a 
man's  own  but  the  testimony  of  a  new  life  out  of  the 
Whole,  out  of  Infinity.  As  clear  as  daylight  the 
fact  stands  in  front  of  us  that  the  spiritual  activity 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    131 

knows  no  bounds,  that  it  tolerates  no  external 
hindrance,  and  that  it  perceives  all  which  it  as  yet 
has  not  made  its  own  as  a  resistance  and  a  reproach. 
An  all-inclusive  life,  in  this  manner,  dawns  in  man, 
and  at  the  same  time  morality  shows  that  nowhere 
is  he  more  himself  than  within  his  moral  province. 
Must  not  this  kind  of  thing  then  alter  fundamentally 
all  the  prior  views  of  man  ? 

(/3)  The  Inward  Antithesis  overcome. — We  have 
already  observed  the  dawning  of  an  infinite  life  in 
man  as  well  as  his  striving  liberating  him  from  the 
small  self  and  the  mere  ordinary  level  of  humanity. 
Hut  a  doubt  can  arise,  whether  this  change  is  energetic 
enough  to  reach  the  root  of  life ;  whether  the  cleft 
previously  referred  to  between  subject  and  object, 
between  the  individual  standpoint  and  its  opposite, 
does  not  confine  man  within  the  mere  surface-level 
of  things,  and  does  not  hold  him  fast  to  a  mere 
subjective  mood  and  stimulation.  Our  next  concern 
and  question  will  be  to  see  whether  this  cleavage  can 
somehow  be  bridged,  and  whether  the  life  can  dis- 
engage itself  from  the  destructive  antithesis. 

The  treatment  of  this  question  can  easily  fall  into 
a  false  path  when  it  misconstrues  that  such  an  anti- 
thesis is  not  endowed  by  nature,  but  has  originated 
in  the  course  of  history.  The  sensuous  beginnings 
of  life  allow  the  consciousness  and  its  object  to  How 
in  perfect  unison,  the  psychical  impressions  swim  on 
the  current  of  the  environment,  and  the  human 
sphere  has  not  yd  opposed  individual  and  society  to 
one  another.  Hut  the  movement  of  thought  grows 
and  works  everywhere  towards  differentiation  and 
perspicuity;    in   such    work    the    subject    begins   to 


132  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

realise  itself,  and  at  the  same  time  acquires  greater 
rigour  and  independence ;  and,  consequently,  the  life 
finds  itself  more  and  more  posited  between  an  anti- 
thesis, and  through  this  is  driven  further  out  of  its 
previous  unity.  But  the  liberation  of  the  object  from 
the  immediacy  of  sensation  is  in  no  way  its  complete 
banishment  out  of  life  ;  indeed,  it  remains  present  in 
a  freer  kind  of  way,  for  we  saw  a  counter-movement 
originate  in  which  the  very  same  thing  that  is  pressed 
back  on  the  one  side  is  again  appropriated  on  the 
other  side.  How  could  thought  itself  without  such 
an  adherence  and  a  reapproach  of  the  object  mark  its 
own  frontier  over  against  the  mere  presentations  ? 
How  could  the  idea  raise  itself  above  the  impressions 
of  sensation,  the  judgment  above  mere  association  of 
ideas,  and  the  causal  nexus  above  the  mechanism  of 
presentations,  if  they  were  not  able  to  transplant 
themselves  in  the  very  midst  of  the  facts,  to  develop 
their  duration,  and  to  maintain  their  necessity  in  a 
region  beyond  the  mere  impressions  of  sensation  ? 
The  Spiritual  Life  thus  never  falls  entirely  on  the 
external  side,  so  that  another  side  presents  itself 
and  occupies  our  attention  because  it  belongs  to  our 
existence  and  is  encompassed  by  our  life. 

Now,  however,  this  life  develops  a  further  move- 
ment which  brings  both  sides  together  into  closer 
contact,  which  leads  the  two  to  some  kind  of  union, 
and  thus  enables  the  one  to  grow  by  means  of  the 
other.  It  is  the  gravitation  of  the  object  from  the 
region  of  work  or  mere  external  activity  which 
translates  the  outward  into  an  inward.  Such  inward- 
ness alone — such  acceptation  of  the  external  into  the 
particular  life — makes  it  conceivable  how  work  can 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    133 

become  one's  own  aim,  how  we  can  love  it  and  bring 
to  it  sacrifice,  and  how  we  are  able  to  drown  all  our 
sorrows  and  needs  in  the  joy  which  lies  beyond  them. 
The  task  is  laid  upon  us  mainly  through  an  external 
necessity,  and  often  in  the  initial  stages  it  is  dis- 
covered as  a  painful  burden.  But  when  the  task 
enables  us  to  fasten  it  to  an  inward  staple,  when 
it  is  able  to  become  a  thing  of  value  for  us,  and 
when  out  of  the  obligation  freedom  and  joy  burst 
forth,  then  the  seeming  stranger  proves  itself  clearly 
enough  to  be  a  piece  of  our  very  life :  we  affirm 
and  uplift  ourselves  whilst  we  serve  the  necessity 
of  the  facts. 

The  most  varied  provinces  of  life  point  this  out 
with  equal  clearness ;  each  province,  however,  shows 
it  in  its  own  special  way.  That  there  is  no  definite 
knowledge  without  a  relationship  with  the  nature  and 
necessity  of  the  object  has  been  already  often  noticed 
and  needs  no  further  explanation ;  but  in  Art  it  is 
shown  even  clearer  how  a  Life-process  of  a  spiritual 
kind  encircles  both  inward  and  outward  sides,  and 
enables  them  to  sail  together ;  and  how,  out  of  the 
contact,  an  inner  development  issues.  On  its  highest 
summits,  as  in  the  life-work  of  a  Goethe,  Art  is 
neither  a  mere  reception  and  copy  of  an  external 
world  surrounding  us  nor  is  it  a  mere  setting 
of  a  ready-made  inner  life,  but  both  inward  and 
outward  are  raised  into  a  corporate  region  of  life  and 
here  in  one  another  and  through  one  another  are 
carried  further.  The  inwardness  gains  a  solid  con- 
figuration and  a  distinctive  individuality  in  this 
recasting  mould  :  the  object,  however,  could  not 
mean    much    to    the    Life-process    had    it    not    itself 


184  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

received  an  inspiration  from  within,  and  had  it  not  been 
able  to  communicate  with  this.  All  this  is  removed 
as  far  as  possible  from  a  vague  parallel  flow  of  both 
sides,  for  only  where  the  initial  chaos  is  overcome  and 
a  clear  division  has  resulted  can  Art  begin  its  work, 
for  it  finds  itself  first  of  all  facing  an  opposite,  and  has 
to  labour  to  penetrate  beneath  the  surface-content  of 
both  sides.  But  this  labour  overcomes  the  opposite 
and  holds  it  fast ;  and  while  it  does  this,  if  on  the 
lower  level  the  one  might  suppress  the  other,  yet  on 
the  heights  a  reciprocal  relationship  is  reached  ;  the 
opposing  forces  of  a  subjective  and  an  objective,  of 
an  idealistic  and  a  realistic  division,  yield  to  a  treat- 
ment which  may  be  designated  as  the  sovereign 
treatment  in  so  far  as  here  the  Life-process  is  freed 
from  all  dependence  on  the  "hither  and  thither" 
of  things,  and  is  raised  to  the  level  of  a  full 
self-reliance. 

The  creations  of  Goethe  are  admired  on  account  of 
their  objective  quality,  but  this  objectivity  signifies  in 
no  way  a  slavish  adherence  to  an  external  existing 
material,  but  in  this  very  material  the  spirit  of  man 
proves  its  superiority,  for  he  posited  the  material  within 
the  ground  of  the  inner  life  and  filled  it  with  life 
anew.  Through  such  a  course  alone  can  the  material 
reveal  its  own  nature  and  provide  for  the  whole  of  life. 
This  is  the  wondrous  and  further  development :  the 
object,  even  in  its  assimilation  by  the  subject,  does  not 
lose  its  own  independence  and  characteristic  features, 
but  through  this  assimilation  develops  those  features. 
Thus  the  consciousness  itself  grows  by  means  of  the 
object,  and  the  whole  of  life  wins,  in  being  raised 
above   the  opposite    of  mere   empty  sentimentalism 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OE  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    135 

and  dead  matter,  an  objective  and  even  an  essential 
character.     We  can  now  say  : 

"  Nothing  is  within  alone, 
Nothing  is  without  alone, 
For  what's  inward  is,  too,  outward, 
And  what's  outward  is,  too,  inward." 

The  double-sidedness  and  inward  reciprocity  of  life 
appear  in  another  colour  through  the  relationship 
of  man  with  man  and  through  the  superstructure  of 
political  and  social  connections.  Out  of  the  surface- 
content  there  could  never  issue  an  inward  communion 
and  interchange  of  life  without  the  ability  of  man  to 
transpose  himself  into  the  soul  of  another,  to  think 
and  feel  with  that  other,  for  through  this  there  is 
granted  him  an  independence  and  a  power  to  move 
within  suitable  bounds.  Without  such  an  inward 
pressure  of  another  upon  the  individual,  there  is  no 
good-will,  no  sympathy,  no  definite  compassion  and 
no  reciprocal  judgment  concerning  right  and  obliga- 
tion. The  idea  of  right  shows  with  special  clearness 
our  ability  to  distinguish  that  "other "from  ourselves, 
to  transpose  ourselves  upon  his  standard,  and  to  think 
and  measure  out  of  his  standard  ;  thus  the  "  beyond  " 
is  simultaneously  a  "  here  and  now,"  and  the  separation 
is  not  done  away  with,  but  the  life  is  raised  above  it. 
Only  by  such  an  exit  from  one's  ordinary  sphere 
can  a  conjoint  order  of  human  relationships  become 
possible— an  order  which  strives  after  a  kingdom  of 
righteousness. 

Encompassing  all  these  individual  provinces,  activity 
accomplishes  an  inner  scale  of  values  for  the  individual 
;is  well  as  for  the  whole  of  humanity.  If  all  which 
we  take  up  in  our  work   draws   incomparably  nearer 


136  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

to  us  and  becomes  a  piece  of  our  life,  then  the  whole 
of  such  activity  itself  may  form  a  self-reliant  province 
and  become  what  we  designate  as  our  "  calling " ;  a 
piece  of  reality  is  thus  appropriated  inwardly  by  us ; 
this  grants  a  stability  to  life  in  itself  and  against  itself 
as  well  as  a  superiority  over  whim  and  caprice.     In 
fact,  it  is  a  consciousness  of  unassailable  worth  which 
is  secure  within   its   inward    citadel   in   spite  of  the 
immensity  of  the   alien   and    inconceivable  without. 
In  a  similar  manner,  humanity  itself  prepares  a  pro- 
vince and  a  world  of  action  progressively  out  of  an 
alien  world.     What  appertains  to  this  world  of  action 
may  include,  indeed,  many  problems,  but  it  signifies 
undoubtedly  an  actuality;  it  constructs   a   starting- 
point  for  all  further  labour ;  it  holds  men  and  things 
fast  together,  and  binds  single  periods  of  time  into 
a  continuous  chain  ;  it  resists  a  dissolution  into  the 
small   and   egotistic,    and   resists,  too,    the   constant 
change  of  that  current  which  flows  on  the  surface  of 
time  ;  it  stands  against  all  arbitrary  action  concerning 
the  contour  of  things  ;  and  it  feels  bound  to  come  to 
an  understanding  with  what  is  able  to  produce  effects 
in  the  depth   and    duration   of  things.     In  all  such 
expansion  the  man  discovers  his  real  self  through  his 
own  soul,  and  finds  that  he  is  incomparably  more  in 
himself  than  he  could  possibly  be  through  the  cultiva- 
tion of  his  mere  natural  self;  he  becomes  far  more  his 
own  true  self  than  he  had  become  when  under  the 
dominion  of  natural    impulses.     Indeed,  the  man  is 
now  more,  and  comprehends  his  life  as  more  than  is 
revealed  by  the  first  glance  of  things  ;  consequently, 
effective  transformations  of  this  glance  become  urgent. 
Activity   alone    gives    man    a    secure    feeling   of 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    137 

reality  ;  without  activity  life  threatens  to  vanish  as 
a  shadow  and  a  dream.  Activity  grants  life  such  a 
consolidation  through  the  progress  of  work  as  a 
superior  and  upholding  force.  Such  a  progress  binds 
activity  and  work.  The  "  becoming  "  of  such  a  work 
is  a  highly  characteristic  transaction ;  even  in  the 
hurried  design  of  it  there  originates  a  kernel,  an  idea, 
a  governing  centre,  just  as  has  happened  in  the 
growth  of  the  physical  universe  and  in  the  formation 
of  organic  life.  The  kernel  shoots  up  more  and  more 
around  the  centre,  the  rough  outline  grows  and  shapes 
itself,  it  stands  before  our  thought  as  a  self-reliant 
essence  which  strives  to  pass  from  the  region  of 
quasi-existence  to  that  of  a  complete  reality ;  and 
through  such  movement  it  becomes  a  driving  and 
judging  force  within  the  life.  The  initial  insecurity 
is  then  overcome,  the  multiplicity  of  energies  find 
their  way  back  towards  the  centre,  mutually  form 
their  boundaries  and  determine  themselves  in  turns ; 
the  different  possibilities  which,  at  first,  treat  one 
another  peaceably  are  now  urged  to  a  decision,  and 
life  as  a  whole  is  driven  into  a  definite  arena.  The 
work  develops  an  experience  by  itself,  and  it  is  only 
when  the  two  sides  of  work  and  conscious  activity 
are  related  to  one  another  in  an  encompassing 
and  fruitful  manner  that  a  definite  experience 
originates  over  against  a  bare  empiricism.  Also,  the 
work  does  not  require  that  the  truth  should  be 
corroborated  through  external  proofs  ;  the  corrobora- 
tion is  in  the  man's  own  triumphant  effort,  in  his  own 
deduction,  and  in  the  active  ascent  of  his  life.  In 
all  this  there  is  present  a  withdrawal  from  self  and 
a  return  to  self,  and,  at  the  same  time,   there  is  an 


138  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

inward  crystallisation  of  a  reality  which  is  durable 
within  one's  own  province.  Such  concentration  and 
crystallisation  of  life  raise  the  man  above  all  the 
groping  and  lingering  of  mere  mental  reflection,  and 
make  him  yield  to  a  power  which  may  be  termed 
the  necessity  of  the  fact,  and  which  without  question 
brings  forth  a  further  development  of  life. 

But  action  cannot  accomplish  so  much  as  all  this 
so  long  as  it  lies  sundered  and  isolated  merely  by  the 
side  of  other  actions.  But  the  more  it  reaches  a 
spiritual  character,  the  more  it  outgrows  that  isola- 
tion until  it  becomes  the  expression  of  a  universal 
characteristic,  and  a  piece  of  an  all-embracing  aggre- 
gate action.  Or,  is  not  every  work  of  art  and  of 
thought  in  its  individuality  a  confession  at  the  same 
time  of  the  Whole,  and  is  there  not  in  it,  in  spite  of 
external  limits,  a  conception  of  the  Infinite  ?  And 
is  there  not  in  the  struggle  for  the  right  of  this 
Infinite  an  essential  truth  and  a  universal  Weltan- 
schauung contended  for  ?  Thus  in  definite  spiritual 
activity  all  individual  actions  are  spanned  by  an 
aggregate  living  activity,  and  it  is  through  reaching 
such,  and  in  no  other  way  that  life  can  gain  an  inner 
unity  and  a  solidity — gain  the  character  of  a  definite 
reality.  Such  a  reality  can  never  fall  on  us  from 
without ;  it  is  obtained  through  a  great  struggle  in 
the  welding-heat  of  subject  and  object  which  results 
through  a  turn  towards  activism.  This  welding- 
process,  however,  takes  place  not  somewhere  between 
the  inner  and  the  outer  world,  but  purely  in  an  inner 
world  which  has  taken  up  into  itself  the  antithesis. 
It  is  out  of  the  Spiritual  Life  alone  that  there  issues 
a  reality  for  man. 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    139 

Through  such  inwardness  of  the  activity — especially 
of  the  encompassing  life-activity— there  is  also  present 
a  formation  of  the  spiritual  nature  of  man.  When 
labouring  along  with  this,  he  labours  on  the  heights  of 
his  own  nature  and  obtains  in  the  struggle  a  spiritual 
individuality.  It  is  this,  which  appears  from  one 
point  of  view  as  the  construction  of  a  new  world, 
appears  at  the  same  time  as  a  construction  of  his  own 
nature — a  lawful  work  against  his  own  lower  self. 
The  mere  expansion  of  activity  is  not  of  a  true 
nature  unless  the  man  struggles  with  his  own  self 
and  thereby  wins  the  energy  and  the  fulcrum  of  self- 
maintenance.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  inward- 
ness of  his  characteristic  nature  does  not  reach  this 
through  brooding  and  sorrowing,  but  only  through  a 
stepping  out  of  his  own  subjectivity,  through  a  virile 
wrestling  with  things,  and  through  a  clarification  and 
a  further  development  of  all  things  on  the  path  of 
their  greatest  resistance.  Thus  we  seek  ourselves, 
but  we  find  ourselves  only  in  the  plasticity  of  things 
and  in  the  construction  of  a  new  world.  So  that, 
after  all,  we  are  within  ourselves  although  we  seemed 
to  have  stepped  outside  ourselves  ;  and  in  the  struggle 
we  have  won  a  true  and  larger  province  of  life.  All 
this  shows  clearly  enough  that  a  bridging  of  the  cleft 
reaches  down  to  the  deepest  ground  of  life  ;  and 
through  a  recognition  of  this  we  find  ourselves 
undoubtedly  engaged  in  the  constructive  creation  of 
our  own  spiritual  individuality. 

When  we  base  our  individual  work  upon  such 
a  foundation  of  aggregate  work  and  of  a  spiritual 
individuality,  it  appears  evident  that  the  work  of 
great   souls    retains   a    worth    when    all    the   surface- 


140  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

appearances  and  the  incessant  leakage  of  time  pass 
away.  It  is  clear,  too,  that  those  souls  handled  the 
transitory  nature  of  the  appearance  of  things  with 
great  indifference.  Goethe  made  such  a  confession 
of  himself :  "I  have  ever  viewed  all  my  work  and 
accomplishments  as  no  more  than  mere  symbols  ;  and 
in  my  deepest  experience  it  seemed  to  me  pretty 
much  the  same  whether  I  made  pots  or  pans." 

How  spiritual  individuality  develops  into  a  life- 
work,  and  how  it  steps  forth  and  grows  alongside 
such  life-work,  has  been  shown  by  the  leading  minds 
with  illuminating  perspicuity.  Such  a  work  as 
that  of  Kant  did  not  possess  its  most  characteristic 
features  and  its  greatness  from  the  beginning  as  a 
mere  natural  product.  Such  a  work  acquired  its 
originality  only  after  a  long  and  toilsome  quest 
through  which  finally  the  striving  burst  out  into 
blossom  and  fruit.  In  all  movement  he  held  before 
himself  a  fixed  goal,  and  in  all  multiplicity  a  govern- 
ing unity.  Such  a  method  led  the  energies  to  their 
highest  tension,  dispersed  all  that  was  alien  and 
irresolute,  and  gave  to  the  individual  for  the  first 
time  his  distinctive  stamp.  Thus  the  characteristics 
of  the  Whole  can  participate  in  the  smallest  elements 
and  fashion  each  and  all  according  to  the  pattern  of 
this  Whole. 

If  this  work  of  the  spiritual  "becoming"  of  man 
signifies  so  much,  the  decision  concerning  the  success 
or  the  ill-success  of  the  enterprise  lies  above  all  else 
in  this :  whether  the  ascent  to  such  a  level  is  accom- 
plished or  not.  The  inner  course  of  life  as  well  as 
the  nature  of  the  final  convictions  are  determined 
throughout   by  nothing    more  than    by  the    manner 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE     141 

in  which  this  ascent  takes  place  —  whether  such 
ascent  is  easy  or  difficult,  whether  it  takes  place 
through  the  restful  development  of  natural  construc- 
tion or  through  powerful  feeling  and  renewal.  In- 
deed, if  the  decision  failed  here,  life  will  appear  soon 
as  an  offering  of  fate,  later  as  a  work  of  free  activity, 
later  still  as  filled  with  the  harmony  of  existence,  and 
finally  as  moved  by  its  own  contradictions. 

What  is  true  of  the  work  of  the  individual  is  not 
less  true  of  the  work  of  the  race.  To  a  participation 
in  work  many  are  called ;  to  the  furtherance  of 
definite  culture  few  are  chosen.  It  is  only  spiritual 
individuality  bent  on  its  work  of  life  which  gives 
culture  an  inward  connection,  a  full  self-reliance,  and 
a  living  soul ;  and  such  spiritual  individuality  alone 
is  able  to  span  all  the  various  provinces  and  to  work 
with  a  rousing  and  durable  energy  upon  the  whole 
of  life. 

What  differentiates  people  differentiates  also 
epochs.  Great  are  only  those  times  which  fasten 
their  strivings  to  an  undivided  task  in  which  man  is 
able  to  take  part  with  his  whole  nature ;  where  this 
does  not  happen,  all  fulness  of  work,  all  exertion  and 
movement  of  the  individual  and  of  the  masses,  pro- 
duce neither  stability  of  character  nor  joyousness  of 
disposition  ;  and,  too,  the  advance  of  petty-human 
interests  is  not  kept  sufficiently  at  bay,  so  that  the 
life  will  fluctuate  aimlessly  between  a  soulless  per- 
formance and  an  empty  frame  of  mind.  It  is  only 
with  a  Life-encompassing  work  that  the  otherwise 
fleeting  and  unreal  time  obtains  the  consciousness  of 
an  immanent  eternity  and  of  unassailable  worth. 

Finally,  there  proceeds  through  the  whole  striving 


148  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

of  humanity  the  desire  to  grasp  the  whole  infinity  of 
existence  in  one  characteristic  reality,  and  to  trans- 
form existence  into  a  totality  of  production,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  to  gain  for  the  self  a  characteristic  spiritual 
mode  of  life.  All  definite  culture  is  also  intrinsically 
a  striving  of  humanity  after  an  inner  unity  of  its  own 
life  and  nature ;  for  if  the  striving  remains  less  than 
this,  culture  remains  something,  in  spite  of  its 
feverish  industry,  which  merely  hangs  on  us  exter- 
nally, and  which  finally  becomes  quite  indifferent 
to  the  main  spiritual  problems  of  life.  But  if  the 
relation  of  culture  is  found  in  close  contact  with 
the  characteristic  mode  and  self-maintenance  of  life, 
the  life  is  raised  securely  above  all  natural  and  civic 
existence,  for  it  has  won  a  new  world  within  itself. 

There  arises,  therefore,  in  activity  and  production 
a  rich  reality ;  it  arises,  too,  in  problems  and 
struggles.  The  Life-process  reaches  within  itself  an 
altitude  above  its  prior  hindrances,  and  bestows  upon 
man,  so  far  as  he  participates  in  it,  an  existence  on 
the  heights,  out  of  which,  as  out  of  a  solid  kernel, 
there  issues  a  counter-effect  to  the  natural  disinte- 
gration of  things.  This  power  has  shown  itself  to 
belong  to  an  upward  level  of  life,  but  it  signifies  not 
as  yet  the  final  issue  of  life. 

(7)  The  Winning  of  a  Universal  Self. — Work- 
forms,  as  a  consummation  of  activity,  the  summit  of 
life  as  well  as  the  goal  of  effort ;  it  remains  the  axis 
on  which  all  further  development  has  to  turn.  But 
with  all  its  accomplishments  it  is  not  yet  the  final 
aim.  That  which  renders  work  great  signifies  at  the 
same  time" its  limits,  and  the  greatness  itself  seems 
unreachable  without  the  aid   of  energies  which    the 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE     143 

work  far  more  presupposes  than  produces.  In  par- 
ticular, the  Spiritual  Life  demands  more  unity,  more 
freedom,  more  soul  than  the  work  is  able  of  itself  to 
produce. 

(1)  In  work  the  inward  energy  and  the  external 
object  reach  a  point  of  contact  and  a  reciprocal 
impregnation.  But  such  a  bond  of  union  within  the 
consciousness  is  at  the  same  time  a  switching  off  of 
the  external ;  nowhere  more  than  here  holds  valid  the 
word  that  all  close  determination  is  also  a  nega- 
tion (omnis  deter  mi  natio  negatio).  Also,  work,  as 
an  embodiment  of  a  general  conviction  and  as  a 
Weltanschauung,  retains  a  specific  and  abstract  char- 
acter ;  the  transference  of  life  into  work  and  effort  is 
thence  a  differentiation  which,  if  made  final,  becomes 
dangerous.  The  complete  immersion  of  man  in  the 
sea  of  work  resigns  him  inevitably  to  a  narrowness 
and  easily  to  an  egoism ;  also  the  spiritual  individu- 
ality contains  a  lofty  self-existence  which  quickly  and 
pointedly  rejects  and  excludes  the  claims  of  the  mere 
external.  That  the  work  that  binds  at  the  same  time 
disunites  is  clearly  shown  in  the  union  of  men  as 
labour-groups ;  here  originates  a  jealousy  of  vocation, 
and  a  passion  of  class-struggle  which  in  a  spirit  of  the 
wildest  hatred  against  its  opponents  believes  itself 
justified  in  the  advocacy  of  common  interests.  And 
is  the  situation  otherwise  when  nations  fight  for  the 
increase  of  their  products  and  for  world-dominion  ? 

Such  disunion  and  split  reach  beyond  the  individual 
mind  into  the  whole  mode  of  thought.  The  speciality 
of  work  prevents  us  from  seeing  both  aspects  of 
its  characteristics ;  it  cannot  develop  certain  energies 
without  coercing  others  ;  work  thus  prepares  for  in- 


U4  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

dividuals,  nations,  and  times,  in  their  own  life-circle,  a 
special  province  and  a  special  kind  of  existence,  and 
yet  we  can  not  and  may  not  renounce  the  truth  that 
we  need  co-operation  in  a  sphere  of  life  common  to 
all,  need  exchange  in  our  work,  and  need  to  think  of 
and  to  live  for  one  another.  Indeed,  humanity  as  a 
whole  is  not  able  to  consider  the  need  of  winning 
a  spiritual  individuality  for  the  highest  aspiration 
necessary  unless  it  resigns  itself  to  the  claims  of  a 
universal  truth. 

(2)  The  strengthening  and  the  calm  of  life  are  a 
further  product  of  work.  But  without  the  counter- 
effect  of  liberating  energies  this  very  quality  resigns 
itself  into  a  numb  fixture  and  an  intolerable  bondage ; 
the  fluctuation  which  inheres  in  work  threatens  to 
overwhelm  and  to  suppress  man.  Does  not  work 
hold  such  fluctuation  ?  Work  needs  for  its  success 
not  only  external  conditions  and  favourable  surround- 
ings, but  far  more  an  inward  ability  which  does  not 
place  our  will  under  its  heel,  and  which  makes  work 
devolve  upon  us  as  a  good  and  a  gift.  These  guests, 
however,  decide  concerning  the  result  of  our  efforts 
and  the  happiness  and  worth  of  life  in  so  far  as  they 
rise  into  work  and  activity.  So  much  hardness,  so 
much  injury  and  even  cruelty,  are  not  discovered  in 
connection  with  work  so  long  as  the  happy  results 
and  the  victorious  achievements  are  kept  before  our 
eyes.  But  a  pure  result  is  seldom  enough  to  be 
found,  and  amongst  the  favoured  minds  scarcely  one 
was  truly  great  who  did  not  discover  a  wide  cleft 
between  wish  and  will,  and  who  had  not  far  more  to 
say  than  was  permitted  him.  Now,  is  this  surplus 
presented  to  such  minds  to  be  treated  as  an  indifferent 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    145 

and  worthless  thing?  And  are  all  those  wide  and 
predominant  provinces  of  life,  which  are  lost  by 
peoples  and  times,  to  be  denied  of  their  rich  and  far- 
reaching  effects  ?  We  resist  such  an  assumption  and 
greet  joyously  that  parable  of  Jesus  of  the  talents, 
that  there  rises,  beyond  all  the  distinctions  of  the  men 
and  beyond  the  whole  field  of  their  several  activities, 
that  which  is  located  in  the  decision  and  character  of 
each  individual.  But  does  not  this  itself  desire  a  new 
life  ?  And  how  is  such  a  life  grounded  ?  How  does 
it  rationally  justify  itself? 

(3)  In  the  main,  the  entanglements  originate  out 
of  the  relationship  of  work  with  the  soul.  The 
work  to  us  was  no  external  performance ;  it  proved 
its  presence  and  its  greatness  within  the  soul  through 
the  fact  which  culminated  in  freeing  the  man  from 
all  bare  neutrality  and  subjectivity ;  it  was  found 
to  be  something  resting  in  its  own  essence,  something 
moved  to  further  development  by  its  characteristic 
energies.  Work  could  accomplish  such  a  feat  only 
in  so  far  as  it  drew  into  itself  the  very  life  of  the 
soul,  and  in  so  far  as  this  life  set  forth  characteristically 
a  reflected  light  from  itself.  But  this  emancipation 
of  work  has  also  a  reverse  side.  The  emancipation 
can  become  numb  and  exclusive;  the  connection 
relaxes  and  parts  asunder  from  the  whole  of  the 
soul ;  the  work  tears  the  self-sovereignty  within  itself, 
and  through  this  the  life  docs  not  only  move  in  a  track 
too  narrow  for  itself,  but  also  sacrifices  its  freedom 
to  a  mechanism  of  its  own  acts  ;   ;ui(l  finally  its  specific 

spiritual    character    is    turned    into    an    impervious 

mechanism.     Whilst  work  itself  tears  away  so  much 

from    man    and    turns    round    as    master    upon    the 

10 


146  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

originator,  life  transforms  itself  into  a  soulless 
mechanism  in  spite  of  all  the  straining  of  energy  ; 
the  character  retreats  before  the  activity  of  work  ; 
the  work  overpowers  the  man  and  finally  makes  him 
its  slave.  So  it  happened  where  the  whole  Spiritual 
Life  was  transformed  through  a  logical  process  into 
a  particular  movement  of  thought-process ;  so  it 
happens  in  a  more  evident  and  painful  manner  still 
where  technical  work  with  its  incessant  headway 
captivates  all  thought  and  judgment ;  and  so  it 
happens  everywhere  where  man  is  held  as  a  mere 
tool  for  the  progress  of  culture,  and  where  the  waves 
of  the  most  extensive  movements  carry  and  drive 
him  along  without  the  participation  of  any  power  of 
his  own. 

Work,  without  a  doubt,  though  it  withdraws  itself 
from  the  life  of  the  soul,  is  again  drawn  back  to  the 
whole  of  the  soul,  is  proved,  valued,  and  enlivened  ; 
it  is  only  through  a  constant  return-movement  to 
its  own  origin  and  through  a  continuous  overcoming 
by  the  force  of  a  spirituality  superior  to  itself  that 
it  can  unify  the  spiritual  character  and  serve  as  the 
inward  growth  of  life.  If  the  words  are  true  that 
man  is  more  than  his  work,  then  the  whole  of 
humanity  is  more  than  the  production  of  work ; 
it  must  be  no  less  than  the  creation  of  a  culture  and 
spiritual  individuality. 

Thus  through  a  kind  of  necessity  there  arises  a 
desire  after  a  further  development  of  life  beyond  the 
level  of  work — after  a  life  which  returns  from  its 
immersion  in  work  to  itself,  which  abides  in  itself, 
which  holds  fast  the  work  and  also  allows  a  self 
superior  to  it  to  unfold.     Does  such  a  desire  corre- 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    147 

spond  with  any  kind  of  reality  within  our  experience  ? 
We  answer  in  the  affirmative ;  for  above  the  levels 
of  work,  justice,  culture,  and  mental  individuality, 
the  movement  mounts  upward  to  a  level  of  creative- 
ness  and  of  love,  of  a  spiritual  personality  and  a  pure 
immanent  existence.  Religion  and  Art  especially 
appropriate  the  conception  of  this  creativeness  as  a 
confession  ;  the  former,  in  order  to  exclude  all  union 
of  the  Divine  effect  with  an  alien  material  and  dark 
fate ;  the  latter,  in  order  to  explain  its  own  work 
as  a  donum  of  free  imagination  and  as  a  proof  of 
the  originality  of  the  artist.  Both  could  not  appro- 
priate the  conception  were  it  not  rooted  in  the  whole 
of  life,  and  were  there  not  mainly  a  deepening  possible 
in  the  fact  that  work  previously  had  ruled  and  bound 
life,  and  now  is  overcome  by  life  itself.  This  happens, 
however,  through  a  transformation  into  the  free 
development  and  reflection  of  the  Spiritual  Life. 
Herewith  life  outgrows  the  heaviness  and  numbness 
which  its  prior  development  adhered  to  ;  now  all 
dark  residuum  vanishes — the  alien  becomes  a  gover- 
nor and  the  outward  becomes  an  inward.  On  such 
elevation  above  the  sphere  of  work  and  through  a 
liberation  from  all  the  coercion  of  the  numb  "given," 
life  becomes  a  complete  immanent  existence,  a  definite 
self-life,  and  a  transformation  to  the  heights  ;  and 
it  is  in  this  thai  all  lies  which  carries  an  uplifting 
energy  and  good  cheer  in  itself.  This  creativeness 
strikes  its  roots  into  the  soil  of  all  the  particular 
fields  which  contribute  to  the  growth  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  as  well  as  into  those  of  science  a  science  which 
aimed  previously  to  relate  itself  inflexibly  in  an 
opposite  direct  ion.      Science  must  abandon  its  highest 


148  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

aim  —  Knowing  —  if  it  renounces  this  creativeness. 
For  without  such  a  creativeness  the  ascent  from  mere 
awareness  to  a  true  discernment  is  impossible.  Definite 
discernment  is  never  found  through  that  which  is 
alien  to  us,  but  always  through  that  which  is  original 
in  us ;  definite  discernment  is  always  a  discovery  of 
our  own  life,  a  finding  of  ourselves  in  that  which  at 
first  was  alien.  How  could  this  be  possible  except 
on  the  explanation  that  an  advance  of  life  has  taken 
place,  and  has  reached  the  level  where  our  limita- 
tion becomes  a  personal  testimony,  and  an  activity 
of  the  self  is  discovered  ?  How  far  and  under  what 
conditions  man  is  able  to  accomplish  this,  is  a  question 
by  itself,  but  he  could  never  strive  towards  such  a 
height  were  he  entirely  chained  to  a  lower  level. 

The  higher  levels  of  life  attain  a  greater  clearness 
in  the  region  of  character  ;  for  to  the  forward-move- 
ment from  work  to  creativeness  there  corresponds 
here  the  movement  from  justice  to  love.  Though 
this  conception  of  love  has  divergent  levels,  and 
though  grievously  the  daily  life  weaves  it  in  the  most 
heterogeneous  ways,  yet  in  the  midst  of  all  the  tangle 
definite  love  asserts  itself  as  a  turn  of  life  which  is 
both  indisputable  and  a  great  mystery.  Love  in 
this  sense  brings  not  only  the  particular  elements  into 
secure  relationship  and  directs  life  from  point  to  point 
in  its  progress,  but  it  also  raises  the  relationship  out 
of  its  isolation  and  kindles  a  new  corporate  life  in 
which  the  singularity  does  not  vanish  but  is  raised  and 
transformed  beyond  its  initial  position.  That  which 
does  not  create  something  new  and  better  out  of  man 
is  not  definite  love.  With  love  the  existence  of 
another  obtains  a  full  inward  present  moment  in  the 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    149 

soul,  and  becomes  immanently  a  piece  of  the  very 
life.  All  elevation,  however,  results  through  a  willing 
self-denial  and  sacrifice.  •'  The  first  motive  in  love  is 
that  I  shall  be  no  individual  person  for  myself,  and 
that  if  I  were  such,  I  should  feel  myself  defective  and 
incomplete.  The  second  motive  is  that  I  win  myself 
in  another  person,  that  I  value  in  her  what  she  in 
turn  finds  in  me.  Love  is  consequently  a  most  pain- 
ful contradiction  which  the  understanding  cannot 
untie,  and  in  it  there  is  nothing  harder  than  that  this 
exactness  of  consciousness  is  negated  and  which  still 
has  to  be  affirmed.  Love  is  both  the  affirmation  and 
the  solution  of  the  contradiction :  as  solution  it  is 
moral  harmony"  (Hegel). 

This  occurs  in  the  first  place  in  the  realm  of 
relationship  of  individual  with  individual,  but  in  such 
a  construction  a  cosmic  phenomenon  reveals  itself,  for 
through  the  development  of  the  inner  connections 
over  against  the  numb  co-existence  of  bare  nature,  a 
new  grade  of  life  appears.  In  addition  to  this,  love 
disengages  itself  from  the  shrinkage  upon  an  indi- 
vidual, and  welds  together  whole  nations — the  whole 
of  humanity;  everywhere  it  becomes  a  product  of  the 
whole  life,  a  product  that  not  only  brings  existing 
elements  to  a  level  of  reciprocity,  but  which  also  re- 
news the  whole  existence  of  man  with  creative  energy 
and  with  a  transforming  flow  of  life.  It  is  trust  in 
such  creative  energy  of  love  that  makes  it  possible 
to  penetrate  clearly  through  the  existing  situation  of 
humanity,  and  yet  enables  us  to  hold  Cast  to  cheerful 
work  for  humanity.  There  can  be  nothing  held  out 
for  man  in  the  painful  entanglements  of  his  own  soul 
and   his    seeming  abiding  helplessness  when   lace    to 


150  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

face  with  the  problem  of  his  own  being  but  what 
religion  offers  as  a  hope  upon  an  Infinite  Love,  which 
unreservedly  awakens  a  new  life  in  him  and  lifts  him 
beyond  the  range  of  conflict. 

What,  however,  drives  forward  such  rich  develop- 
ments in  special  directions  must  embrace  itself  into 
a  Whole  of  a  new  form  of  life ;  the  longing  after 
such  appears  in  the  ardour  and  tenacity  wherewith 
the  nineteenth  century  as  well  as  the  present  revolve 
around  the  conception  of  personality. 

Since  Leibniz  each  of  the  great  thinkers  has  given 
us  something  original,  but  they  all  sought  for  a  new 
and  all-comprehensive  summit  of  life.  The  meaning 
of  our  view,  however,  needs  a  further  development, 
because  first  of  all  we  have  not  shown  that  man  has 
ascended  to  the  level  of  spiritual  individuality.  In 
the  midst  of  all  his  most  brilliant  performances  such 
a  level  does  not  surround  him  altogether ;  he  can 
cast  a  glimpse  at  it  from  below ;  he  can  posit  it  in 
the  life  of  other  individuals  and  through  this  view  it 
in  greater  completeness.  This  he  is  compelled  to  do 
in  order  to  become  superior  to  the  accidental  and 
problematic  in  his  own  life,  and  in  order  to  be  able  to 
eliminate  the  indefinite  from  his  nature  and  to  energise 
the  definite.  Through  this  the  life  desires  a  standard 
where  it  can  survey  the  different  levels  and  transform 
all  the  content  into  his  own  possession,  and  where 
it  can  focus  Infinity  and  possess  an  immanent  self. 
Life  here  remains  occupied  in  itself  although  it 
appears  as  turning  to  the  external  ;  here  is  the  level 
of  mere  achievement  overcome,  and  the  characteristic 
elevation  of  life  forms  the  governing  aim  of  all  toil. 
This  corresponds  to  the  Christian  conviction  of  the 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE  151 

infinite  value  of  man  in  his  pure  inwardness — a 
conviction  "that  for  the  riches  of  the  whole  world 
not  one  individual  soul  can  be  purchased"  (Luther). 
How  could  such  an  estimate  be  justified  did  there  not 
arise  in  the  depth  of  the  soul  a  new  manner  of  life, 
and  did  there  not  here  become  visible  that  which  forms 
the  inmost  kernel  of  entire  reality  ?  Since  the  matter 
is  usually  conceived  as  a  recommendation  of  a  mere 
subjective  and  inactive  sentimentality  withdrawn  from 
the  great  world  into  a  private  nook,  it  has  no  suf- 
ficient basis,  and  indeed,  threatens  to  end  in  empty 
words  and  phrases.  The  above  estimate  of  Luther  is 
justified  only  if  a  new  stage  of  reality  manifests  itself 
in  the  depth  of  the  soul ;  and  this  can  never  happen 
out  of  the  energy  of  any  one  individual  point  in  life, 
but  can  only  happen  through  the  impact  of  Infinite 
Life  with  Infinite  Life,  and  through  the  formation  at 
this  spot  of  a  point  of  intersection  and  concentration 
of  such  life.  Goethe  seems  to  refer  to  the  matter 
from  a  similar  point  of  view  in  those  noteworthy 
words  of  his:  "God  meets  always  Himself;  God 
in  man  meets  again  God  in  man.  Hence  there  is 
no  cause  to  esteem  ourselves  lightly  in  comparison 
with  the  Greatest." 

The  matter,  then,  does  not  resolve  itself  into  a  re- 
ference of  life  to  one  special  point  and  a  subjection 
of  it  to  that  points  particularity,  but  consists  in  the 
immense  task  of  bringing  life  to  its  own  depth  and 
giving  it  a  support  within  itself.  Reality  can  become 
our  own  life  only  if  our  activity  transforms  itself  into 
a  self-activity,  if*  it  brings  to  expression  a  living  self; 
and  this  can  happen  only  when  the  encompassing  unity 
remains  no  mere  point  of  relation,  but  when,  through 


152  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

the  strenuous  elaboration  of  a   thorough-going   and 

durable  life  within  it,  it  wins  a  substance  and  a  nature 
which  affects  all  the  remaining  life.  Within  such  a 
course  life  finds  its  own  ;  without  it,  it  misses  its  own. 
Only  out  of  such  alternate  separation  and  reunion, 
out  of  such  a  scale  of  values  and  reference  to  the  Whole, 
arises  the  question  concerning  a  content  for  the  life  ; 
it  is  only  when  the  encompassing  Whole  overcomes 
the  scattered  manifold  and  appropriates  it  by  a  gradual 
and  thorough  reconstruction  that  there  arises  a  reality 
resting  within  its  own  essence. 

Whether  such  a  life  may  be  called  a  personal  life 
may  be  disputed.     In  any  case,  the  ruling  unity  lies 
not  by  the  side  of  but  within  the  life,  and  through  the 
unfolding  of  such  a  unity  life  deepens  and  expands ; 
such  deepest  life  can  be  in  single  points  only  because  it 
was  previously  and  is  now  in  the  Whole.     In  all  this 
the  situation  is  what  it  is,  not  through  severance  but 
through  something  entirely  the  contrary.     It  has  come 
about  through   the   formation   of  the   most  inward 
connections  with  things— indeed,  through  a  connec- 
tion with  Infinity — although  not  without  an  energetic 
penetration  and  far-reaching  transformation  of  them. 
The  language  used  by  great  thinkers  points  in  the 
same  direction.     Ordinary  parlance,  on  the  contrary, 
connects  too  much  with  this  conception  of  a  deepest 
unity  and  life  the  notions  of  seclusion  and  of  opposi- 
tion,   and   degrades   too   often  this  conception  to  a 
designation  of  a  mere  natural  force,  for  us  to  be  able 
to  advance  in  our  investigation  without  continuous 
reservations    against    these    several    popular    views. 
Hence  it  may  be   better   for   us   to  speak   of  auto- 
nomous  life   and   of  autonomies.     Both  expressions 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    153 

become  pretty  indifferent  when  the  facts  of  life  stare 
us  in  the  face  with  sufficient  clearness.  To  us  there 
lies  before  all  else  the  fact  that  in  the  Spiritual  Life 
itself  a  movement  towards  the  growth  of  a  nucleus 
and  towards  a  transformation  into  a  self-life  is  wide- 
awake and  on  its  course  ;  and  through  such  a  turn  of 
the  Life-process  a  world  of  inwardness  dawns,  which 
signifies  something  quite  other  than  the  shadowy 
inwardness  of  the  mere  subject  himself. 

Corresponding  to  such  gradations  of  autonomous 
life,  we  find  in  the  most  important  work  the  passing 
out  of  the  spiritual  movement  beyond  the  realm  of 
culture.  Necessary  as  culture  is,  the  main  standard 
for  the  final  convictions  of  life  is  not  in  it  but  above 
it.  If  culture  were  the  highest  aim  of  man,  he  him- 
self would  be  a  mere  tool  of  this  achievement ;  the 
culture,  however,  which  is  not  clasped  and  vivified  by 
a  life  superior  to  its  own  could  not  contain  any  meaning 
and  must,  without  such  a  completion,  sink  more  and 
more  into  a  lifeless  mechanism.  Culture  is  a  contest 
of  the  Spiritual  Life  with  an  opposite  and  seeming 
hostile  world  and  not  an  accumulation  of  accomplish- 
ments ;  it  comes  to  its  own  truth  only  when  it  flows 
into  the  current  of  a  Spiritual  Life  of  the  self. 

Laborious  enough  it  is  on  the  ground  of  human 
history  to  wring  such  a  superiority  out  of  mere  culture. 
It  is  wrung  first  and  foremost  in  the  centuries  when 
antiquity  clashed  with  Christianity— in  a  time  when 
an  old  culture  sank  and  a  new  one  had  not  yet  arisen. 
In  such  a  situation  life  would  have  fallen  into  empti- 
ness had  it  not  found  a  world  of  its  own  as  well  as  a 
full  security  in  the  concern  with  itself,  in  the  diving 
into  itself.     This  becomes   clearly  evident  upon  the 


154  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

Graecian  side  in  Plotinus,  and  upon  the  Christian  side 
in  Augustine.  Both  are  agreed  in  the  need  of  carry- 
ing the  work  of  culture  beyond  itself,  and  of  placing 
it  on  a  point  where  it  revolves  around  the  apprehension 
of  eternal  truth  and  the  development  of  the  configura- 
tion of  an  all-inclusive  superior  life  within  itself  alone. 
In  these  connections  the  thought  dawns  that  the 
nature  of  reason  is  not  a  mere  piece  of  the  universe, 
but  encases  within  itself  the  whole  of  the  universe — 
is  a  microcosmus.  "  We  are  each  and  all  a  spiritual 
universe  "  (Plotinus).  Doubtless  those  times  remained 
too  much  in  a  superior  world  of  withdrawal  and 
solitude ;  they  would  not  return  to  the  work  of  the 
world  and  employ  the  life  that  had  been  won.  So 
that  a  sudden  reaction  was  bound  to  come.  But  the 
gain  of  a  pure  immanent  existence  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  as  a  cosmic  life,  and  its  inward  superiority  to  all 
mere  culture  remained  intact.  There  struck,  too, 
along  with  such  a  gain,  an  aim  and  a  standard  to  which 
all  that  shall  henceforth  satisfy  the  spiritual  nature  of 
man  shall  have  to  correspond.  This  appears  valid 
enough  to-day  and  forbids  the  finality  of  the  con- 
clusions of  culture. 

This  adjusted  standard  and  this  comprehensive 
coming-to-itself  of  life  are  the  armour  for  us  in  the 
quest  after  aims  more  than  possessions,  problems 
more  than  achievements ;  but  this  conclusion  is  at 
the  same  time  the  carrier  and  the  indispensable  pre- 
supposition of  the  earlier  standards.  We  saw  effort 
itself  loosened  from  the  natural  self,  and  through 
such  a  liberation  developing  new  energies  and  tracing 
out  new  aims.  Whence  should  these  energies  come, 
how  should   the   new   aims  justify  themselves   if  a 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    155 

characteristic  existence  did  not  arise  in  the  Spiritual 
Life,  if  a  new  self  did  not   come   into  birth  which 
develops  and  asserts  itself  in  the  movements  of  life  ? 
The  upward  march  of  life   to  a  true  and  real  level 
overcame  the  cleavage   between  subject  and  object. 
Is  such  a  conquest  conceivable  unless  the  life  returns 
from  the   province  of  work   to  itself,    and  unless  it 
transforms  its  achievements  into  a  raising  of  the  self  ? 
That  we  in  spiritual  work  develop  our  own  inmost 
nature  and    struggle  for  our  true  self  is  testified  at 
a  glance,     Why  do  we,  for  example,  allow  the  cur- 
rent of  experience  to  mount  into  our  presentations  ? 
Why  not  allow  these  presentations  to  pass  over  us 
calmly  ?      Why    do    we    practise    self-defence    and 
seek   to   overpower   these  external   impressions   and 
transform   them    into  our   own    conceptions?     Why 
suffices  it  us  not  to  float    on  the   perpetual  flux  of 
things  ?     And    why   are   we   driven   by    an    inward 
necessity  to  follow  the  infinitude  of  the  All  into  its 
uttermost  concealment?     Such    transformation   and 
expansion  must  belong,  indeed,  to  the  culmination  of 
our  own  particular  nature,  and  its  furtherance  must 
carry  a  movement  of  this  very  nature  within  itself. 
Also,    Art   could    never    have    become   the   mighty 
power  of  life  it  is,  and  its  form  could  not  have  been 
transformed  into  an  elevated  power,  had  it  not  driven 
man  to  his  work     not  merely  to  his  subjectivity  but 
to  the  foundation  of  his  being.     That  scientific  and 
artistic  labours  won  such  a  height  in  the  struggle  for 
the    spiritual    self   only    on    certain    points    of    the 
summits  does  not  alter    the   facts.      What  is  reached 
wholly  in  the  long  run  would  not  have  been  readied 
at  all  without  the  conquest  of  points  on  the  summits, 


156  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

and  had  it  not  been  that  the  great  personalities  had 
taken  the  facts  in  that  great  sense,  and  had  found  the 
salvation  of  their  life  in  scaling  the  heights  of  truth. 
Such  an  installation  of  the  whole  life  alone  has 
founded  the  conquest  of  such  heights  and  has  tilled 
the  soil  of  daily  work  and  the  results  of  its  ac- 
complishments for  the  reception  of  this  seed.  The 
work  sinks  rapidly  into  a  lifeless  mechanism  when 
it  severs  its  connection  with  such  creativeness  and 
barters  its  originality  for  bare  diligence  on  the  surface 
of  things. 

All  these  movements,  viewed  from  the  ordinary 
surface-existence  of  man,  may  appear  as  mere 
possibilities.  But  they  are  possibilities  not  in  the 
sense  of  vague  imaginations  but  of  urgent  tasks  and 
driving  energies.  They  could  not  work  so  powerfully 
in  us  and  make  that  existence  which  satisfied  us 
previously  now  insufficient  for  us,  were  they  not 
realities ;  were  they  not  realities  out  of  the  deep 
we  should  not  have  struggled  with  them  for  the 
winning  of  a  spiritual  self,  and  at  the  same  time,  for 
the  meaning  and  content  of  our  life. 

2.  Epitome  and  Survey 

(a)  The  Meaning  of  the  Spiritual  Life. — We  have 
already  viewed  the  Spiritual  Life  developing  its 
characteristics  in  three  grades.  It  grew  out  of  its 
isolation  and  dissipation,  and  simultaneously  dis- 
entangled itself  from  mere-human  mechanism ;  in 
the  overcoming  of  the  cleft  between  subject  and 
object  it  forged  for  itself  a  self-reliant  and  sovereign 
character ;    in  the   comprehension   of  infinity  for  its 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    157 

own  self,  it  gained  in  itself  a  fixed  foundation,  and  at 
the  same  time  a  superiority  to  the  world  around  it, 
and  it  became  an  autonomous  life.  All  these  aspects 
work  towards  one  another,  side  by  side  they  support 
and  clarify  one  another,  and  bind  themselves  into  a 
connected  totality.  This  picture  is,  however,  far  re- 
moved from  the  ordinary  conception  of  the  Spiritual 
Life.  According  to  the  ordinary  conception  the 
Spiritual  Life  is  conceived  from  its  very  beginning 
as  strewn  piecemeal  on  solitary  and  separable  points, 
and  it  is  only  much  later  that  any  kind  of  connection 
is  brought  about ;  it  appears,  too,  as  an  attribute  and 
activity  of  an  existence  lying  entirely  beyond  itself, 
and  consequently  finds  itself  hemmed  within  a  given, 
ready-made  world,  and  busies  itself  in  various  ways 
with  such  a  world.  Our  consideration  of  the  matter 
has  presented  the  subject  in  quite  other  light.  Before 
all  else  it  appeared  clear  that  the  Spiritual  Life 
is  only  possible  as  an  inward  connection,  and  as  a 
life  out  of  the  Whole;  it  is  a  participation  in  this 
Whole  which  invests  the  isolated  points  with  a 
spiritual  character ;  never  can  its  own  world,  to 
which  the  Spiritual  Life  extends  itself,  originate 
through  mere  external  combinations.  However,  this 
total -life  did  not  originate  from  any  dark  existence, 
but  it  engendered  by  itself  centre-points  and  con- 
centration-points; for  all  the  conceptions  of  the 
existence  of  its  material  arose  within  the  Life,  and 
through  it  received  a  full  illumination.  The  Life- 
process  has  not.  therefore,  to  execute  an  achievement 
from  the  outside:  it  found  its  problem  in  itself,  in 
the  bringing  forth  of  the  culmination  of  its  own 
nature.     Tins  signifies  an  overcoming  and  an  assimi- 


158  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

lation  of  all  that  lay  outside,  and  that  seemed  at  first 
alien  and  seemingly  hostile.  In  such  a  movement 
this  or  that  thing  within  the  province  of  a  given 
reality  is  not  merely  altered  and  bettered,  but  it  is 
obligatory  to  bring  to  clearness  a  Whole  of  reality. 
This  reality  does  not  feel  itself  as  one  thing  by  the 
side  of  another,  but — with  its  direction  towards  the 
self  as  the  carrier  of  life— as  the  compact  and  com- 
prehensive reality,  as  that  which  deserves  the  name 
of  reality  in  the  truest  sense,  and  which  cannot 
tolerate  anything  outside  itself. 

This  Spiritual  Life  with  its  reality  surrounds  man 
not  as  a  mere  environment  of  his ;  it  attains  in 
him  as  a  Whole  an  immediate  present  moment,  and 
becomes  with  its  infinity  his  own  life  and  nature. 
Only  such  an  inward  abiding  of  the  spiritual  world 
makes  it  conceivable  that  the  spiritual  tasks  work 
directly  on  man,  not  through  the  ravaging  agents  of 
his  particular  interests,  but  through  the  fact  that 
individuals,  in  spite  of  all  their  differences,  are  able 
to  find  an  inner  co-operation  of  activity,  and  to  raise 
themselves  out  of  bare  subjectivity  to  an  independent 
inner  life  and  to  a  kingdom  of  inwardness.  Through 
the  presence  of  such  an  immanence  of  the  Whole  the 
rigid  cleft  which  hitherto  separated  man  from  the 
world  is  overcome ;  now  in  the  individual  points  the 
energy  of  the  Whole  can  work  and  can  build  for 
itself  experiences  of  the  Whole.  Thus  man  gains  in 
himself  different  gradations  of  life.  The  Spiritual 
Life  is  thus  seen  to  be  no  mere  contrivance  of  a  purely 
human  kind,  but  the  taking  up  of  a  difficult  struggle 
against  such  a  human  mode — an  emancipation  from 
such  a  mode  as  an  intolerable  narrowness.     This  new 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    159 

world,  however,  should  not  rest  satisfied  with  a 
merely  human  raiment  wrapped  around  itself,  but 
should  contain  its  own  truth,  and  through  its  trans- 
portation into  the  Spiritual  Life  reach  its  own 
characteristic  nature.  The  Whole  would  have  been 
a  great  falsification  had  not  infinity  with  its  transla- 
tion into  spirituality  obtained  its  original  depth.  It 
appears  similarly  in  the  direction  of  spiritual  activism. 
A  truth  which  shrinks  and  is  valid  only  for  the 
individual  is  no  definite  truth  at  all,  but  a  hybrid  of 
many  colours.  If  all  the  investigation  does  not  draw 
the  main  motives  along  with  it,  how  can  the  narrow- 
ness of  the  circle  of  mere-human  notions  be  broken 
through,  and  a  new  world  of  thought  valid  for  all  be 
opened  out  ?  For  the  value  and  the  grandeur  of  the 
Good,  it  is  essential  that  all  human  interests  should 
be  repelled,  and  man  enabled  by  himself  to  rise  above 
himself. 

It  is  urgent  to  come  to  this  characteristic  depth 
through  the  Spiritual  Life.  In  such  a  province  the 
individual's  own  nature  is  not  isolated,  but  is  inter- 
weaved  inseparably  with  the  whole  of  the  All,  and 
turns  to  this  source  for  its  own  life-content.  Thus 
there  is  no  depth  in  the  individual  portions  if  they  do 
not  exist  in  the  Whole,  if  they  are  not  able  here  to 
unfold  themselves;  in  each  point  a  struggle  for  the 
Whole  takes  place,  and  this  brings  the  Whole  into 
activity. 

Finally,  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Spiritual 
Life  in  man  could  never  arise  against  the  power  of 
nature  if  it  were  no  more  than  a  purely  human  thing. 
Nature  surrounds  us  as  a  boundless  kingdom  of 
energies  and  laws  ;  it  surrounds  us  not  merely  from 


160 FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

without,  but  strikes  deep  into  our  own  soul  with  a 
thousand-fold  incessant  effects.  How  could  the 
Spiritual  Life,  which  finds  itself  first  in  our  aspiration, 
in  any  manner  enforce  its  way  against  all  this  did  we 
not  stand  upon  inward  connections,  and  had  there 
not  worked  in  us  over  against  that  which  is  given  in 
the  surrounding  world  the  energy  of  a  new  kind  of 
world  ?  Transformations  in  the  Whole  could  only 
arise  out  of  a  Whole. 

It  is  now  evident  that  the  movement  to  spirituality 
cannot  be  considered  as  a  work  of  any  separate 
individual  faculties  of  the  mere  man,  but  that  it  is 
a  movement  of  the  All,  which  certainly  in  our  position 
needs  our  co-operation,  but  which,  at  the  same  time, 
takes  us  into  itself  and  makes  of  us  something  quite 
other  than  we  were  on  the  first  view  of  things.  The 
universe  itself  now  finds  its  own  depth  through  such 
a  movement  to  spirituality  ;  from  being  a  kingdom  of 
relations  it  becomes  the  kingdom  of  a  definite  reality. 
The  inward  life,  which  is  otherwise  a  mere  appearance 
of  things,  now  gains  a  self-reliance,  and  develops 
its  own  particular  kingdom — an  inner  world.  The 
nearer  qualities  of  this  inner  world  do  not  allow 
themselves  to  be  known  through  general  conceptions 
such  as  existence-for-self,  self-activity,  etc.  :  these 
give  only  the  frame  within  which  alone  the  mounting 
experience  of  life  is  able  to  set  forth  its  qualities. 
For  example,  the  Good  and  the  Beautiful  are 
characteristic  developments  and  revelations  of  life, 
which  possess  an  incomparable  individuality  and 
actuality  which  are  later  discovered  in  them.  So  in 
connection  with  the  Spiritual  Life,  it  constructs  a 
new  ground  upon  which  boundless  avenues  open  out 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    161 

and  a  whole  kingdom  of  new  actualities  becomes 
accessible.  Through  this  we  become  discoverers  and 
conquerors,  but  it  is  not  into  a  strange  but  into  our 
own  world  that  we  climb  more  and  more. 

Leibniz  was  of  opinion  that  no  nature  could  arise 
in  man  without  some  kind  of  existence-for-self,  and 
consequently  he  sought  to  base  all  reality  upon 
living  monads.  Whether  his  theory,  through  such  a 
turn  to  the  bare  individual  nature,  is  in  itself  correct, 
may  be  doubted ;  but  it  cannot  be  doubted  that 
there  is  no  definite  reality  unless  the  united  total-life 
forces  its  way  through,  and  holds  together,  all  the 
manifold.  Without  a  foundation-stone  all  the  uni- 
verse becomes  a  mere  occurrence,  and  thus  receives 
the  character  of  a  mere  addendum,  a  subsidiary  and 
shadowy  thing,  and  one  which  must  finally  pass  away 
in  a  senseless  flight  that  cannot  be  stopped.  Only  a 
total-life  can  hold  fast  and  bind,  can  construct  a  self- 
activity  oxer  against  bare  mechanical  activity,  can 
along  with  this  reach  an  existence  which  does  not 
belong  to  an  inaccessible  "beyond"  constructed 
through  analogy  from  the  scientific  picture  of  the 
natural  world  ;  but  such  a  total-life  finds  its  own 
more  and  more  in  the  furtherance  of  itself,  and 
through  this  gains  an  ever-richer  content.  Only  this 
depth  of  existence  of  the  Life-process  itself  may  be 
termed  "substance";  such  a  substance  lies  not  be- 
hind us  but  in  front  of  us;  and  it  is  towards  it  as  an 
all-inclusive  goal  that  the  movement  now  reaches. 

This  movement  of  such  a  substance  produces  in 
the  particular  province  of  man's  natures  separation 
of  activity  into  that    which   is  empty  and    that    which 

is  substantial,  ;is  well  as  a  separation  between  the  de- 
ll 


1(>2  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

velopment  of  physical  energy  and  of  self-activity. 
Evidently  there  arises  much  activity  which  is  not 
gripped  by  the  whole  of  the  self — an  activity  which 
sets  mere  energies  in  movement ;  such  an  activity 
governs  the  initial  acts  and  impulses  of  man.  But 
there  is  also  an  activity  which  lies  within  the  whole 
of  life,  and  through  which  life  is  able  to  grow.  It  is 
only  such  an  activity  as  the  latter  that  gives  life  a 
support  and  a  meaning  in  itself,  and  only  out  of  such 
an  activity  are  conceptions  such  as  character,  con- 
viction, etc.,  possible — conceptions  which  sprout  in 
spite  of  the  presence  of  subjectivity  and  passivity, 
and  which,  as  proofs  of  the  Whole,  carry  along  with 
them  an  elevation  of  the  level  of  life.  In  the  strict 
injunction  of  such  a  self-preservation,  all  other 
kinds  of  activity  must  appear  empty  and  untenable. 
Through  such  a  self-preservation  in  the  things  a 
new  conception  of  truth  originates  far  above  the 
ordinary  intellectual  notion,  for  now  that  alone 
becomes  true  to  life  which  includes,  expresses,  and 
furthers  the  Whole  as  a  present  moment  in  con- 
sciousness, whilst  the  separate  isolated  activities 
which  have  loosened  themselves  from  this  and  which 
believe  themselves  all-efficient,  sink  into  untruth. 
The  main  movement  of  life — encompassing  all  the 
separate  points  and  shaping  itself  characteristically  in 
each,  and  especially  overcoming  the  opposition  be- 
tween theoretical  and  practical  reason— becomes  a 
striving  which  longs  to  pass  from  this  region  of  the 
untruth,  which  at  the  start  surrounds  us,  to  the  region 
of  truth ;  the  longing  after  truth  and  real  existence 
becomes  now  the  main  motive-energy  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  ;  as  in  the  province  of  nature,  so  it  now  becomes 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    163 

here  a  longing  after  the  self-preservation  which  rules 
all  movement ;  but  the  longing  is  after  a  self-preser- 
vation quite  other  than  that  found  in  nature. 

In  all  these  transformations  our  initial  problem 
has  stepped  into  a  new  and  richer  position.  The 
movement  which  aimed  at  a  level  above  the  natural 
and  which  wrecked  itself  when  conceived  as  a  mere- 
human  fact,  has  now  succeeded  in  showing  itself 
more  than  human,  and  yet  has  fastened  man  to  itself. 
It  works  now  with  characteristic  greatness  and  energy, 
but  all  depends  upon  man  being  a  participator  in  that 
elevated  life.  In  all  this  there  are  dangers  enough, 
but  such  dangers  can  be  faced,  and  must  not  frighten 
the  man  at  the  outset.  Let  us  see  somewhat  closer 
how,  through  this  transformation,  the  view  of  the 
world  and  the  problems  of  life  are  altered  ;  and  in  the 
meantime  we  shall  not  view  directly  the  religious 
problem,  and  yet  shall  not  lose  sight  of  it. 

(/S)  The  View  of  the  Universe. — Our  main  thought 
of  a  "  becoming"  independence,  of  a  coming  to  itself 
of  all  reality  in  the  Spiritual  Life,  clashes  most 
strongly  with  the  prevailing  view  of  the  universe,  and 
must  demand  against  such  a  view  a  powerful  trans- 
formation. With  the  prevailing  view,  the  visible 
universe  is  held  as  the  main  world,  and  what  rises 
up  in  the  inner  life  is  thought  of  as  a  subsidiary 
phenomenon,  which  is  hardly  able  to  bring  forth  any- 
thing that  is  original.  According  to  our  course  of 
thought,  however,  there  is  imbedded  in  this  inner 
world  a  kernel  of  reality,  and  all  else  becomes  a  mere 
environment  or  preparation,  and  thus  we  obtain  <iu 
inverted  order  of  the  consideration  and  valuation  of 
things.      Will   such   a    view   be    able   to   hold    its  own 


Ki4  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

over  against  the  overwhelming  impressions  of  the 
external  world  ?  It  can  do  so  only  through  a  standard 
of  thought,  and  if  the  inner  life  has  become  conscious 
of  its  autonomy,  and  if  from  this  source  it  undertakes 
its  work.  If  this  happens,  the  demand  will  certainly 
not  be  denied  ;  but  the  fact  is  to  be  seen  and  explained 
not  from  without  within  but  from  within  without. 
Thus  there  culminates  for  the  whole  expansion  of 
thought  an  inversion  from  a  Ptolemaic  to  a  Copernican 
standard. 

An  independent  life  is  to  be  found  thus  within, 
but  it  is  highly  improbable  that  it  is  not  to  be  found 
anywhere  else  in  all  the  wide  universe  but  in  man. 
But  even  if  this  could  not  be  proved,  yet  the 
Spiritual  Life  remains  a  cosmic  fact,  for  it  encloses 
a  depth  of  reality  over  against  the  surface-appear- 
ance of  nature. 

Viewed  in  this  manner,  nature  cannot  possibly 
signify  by  itself  a  complete  and  finished  kingdom. 
Its  whole  incessant  mechanism  of  movements  and 
relations  reveal  nowhere  a  self-life ;  in  the  last  resort 
these  are  viewed  as  empty  and  meaningless,  but 
yet,  however,  the  world-process  itself  reveals  in  the 
Spiritual  Life  an  imperative  longing  after  a  meaning. 
There  originates  in  nature  in  its  wending  towards  the 
animal  level  numerous  and  clear  evidences  of  psychic 
life,  but  this  animal  psychic  life  heightens  rather  than 
lessens  the  conflict  of  opinions  regarding  nature. 
This  psychic  life,  which  also  belongs  in  the  greatest 
part  to  human  existence,  remains  throughout  bound 
in  the  mechanism  of  nature,  and  develops  over 
against  it  no  kind  of  independent  thought.  So  far 
as  we  are  able  to  see,  all  psychic  performance  on  this 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE  165 

stage  of  life  means  simply  the  self-preservation  of  the 
individual,  and  with  it  of  the  species,  in  the  struggle 
for  existence.     So   that   here  a   physical   equivalent 
is  well  able  to  take  the  place  of  a  psychical  perform- 
ance :  what  a  higher  intelligence  or  a  closer  banding 
together  furnishes  to  one   creature    is   furnished  to 
others  by  strength  of  bodily  organisation,  swiftness  of 
movement,   etc.     Nowhere   here  does  the  inner  life 
reach   an   independence,   and   nowhere  is  it   able  to 
found  a  kingdom  of  its  own  ;  nowhere  is  it  able  to 
pass  beyond  the  environment  in  order  to  view  and 
handle  that  environment  as  a  Whole.     But  the  inner 
life   remains  scattered    and   bound,  a  mere   piece  of 
an    alien    world,    empty   in    the    midst    of    all   the 
passion    of  the   animal    impulse.       If   now — not    in 
man  himself,  but  yet  within  the  range  of  humanity 
— a   clarification   and    a  liberation  arise,  if  here  the 
inner  life  becomes  independent   and  a  depth  of  ex- 
istence  opens — that  such  a  fact  has  happened  from 
simple  beginnings   and    by  a  very  slow  ascent  does 
not  alter  the  main    fact   in  the  least, — then   nature 
cannot   any    more   signify  the  whole  of  reality,  but 
can  only  signify  a  special  stage  of  it — a  stage  beyond 
which  the  world-process    proceeds   to  an  existence- 
for-self. 

This  new  fact  is  far  too  original  and  signifies  far 
too  much  an  inverted  order  of  things  to  be  under- 
stood ;is  ;i  lucre  I'urt hcrance  of  the  mechanical  move- 
ment of  nature  itself;  rather  must  it  be  a  cosmic 
life  superior  to  nature  which  breaks  forth  thus— a 
cosmic  life  which  works  also  in  nature  but  which 
proceeds  beyond  it  to  a  stage  of  self-completion. 
In    such    a    connection    the    Spiritual    Life    cannot 


166  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

at  Jill  be  viewed  as  only  a  result ;  it  must  also  be 
valid  as  a  principle ;  it  can  be  the  aim  and  the 
culmination  of  the  world-process  only  if  it  also 
forms  its  foundation  and  presupposition,  and  if  that 
which  at  first  appears  as  a  result  works  in  and 
through  the  whole  movement.  An  energy  of  the 
Whole  must  be  active  from  the  outset  if  the  mani- 
fold is  to  be  united  into  a  Whole,  and  through  such 
a  union  is  to  rise  to  a  higher  plane.  How  could  an 
All  bring  forth  an  independent  inner  life  if  it  were 
soulless  in  itself?  Nature  and  the  unfolded  spirit 
become  herewith  stages  of  the  world-process  which, 
beyond  the  juxtaposition  of  nature  with  its  bare 
relations,  progress  to  a  total-life  which  overcomes 
the  cleft  between  obscure  substance  and  unsubstantial 
happening,  by  making  the  Life-process  independent 
and  developing  all  substance  from  it.  At  the  same 
time,  the  All-life  can  no  more  be  a  stream  flowing 
nobody  knows  whither  and  which  nobody  experi- 
ences. But,  in  a  union  of  beginning  and  of  end, 
a  superiority  is  won  above  all  mere  movement, 
and  an  Eternal  appears  as  a  foundation  of  all  the 
march  of  Time.  This  alone  gives  a  standpoint 
whence  truth,  and,  indeed,  any  striving  after  truth, 
first  become  possible ;  at  the  same  time  we  attain 
to  the  conception  of  a  cosmic  inner  life,  as  a 
presupposition  of  all  striving  after  an  interior 
world.  Hut  he  who  contracts  the  kingdom  of 
thought  of  humanity  to  presentations  of  the  ex- 
ternal world  renounces  at  the  same  time  knowledge 
and  truth. 

The  recognition  of  such  a  cosmic  inner  life  signifies 
in  no  way  an  introduction  of  interior  energies  and 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    167 

movements  into  the  province  of  the  science  of  nature, 
for  this  science  of  nature  must  reject  such  a  procedure 
as  a  disagreeable  and  dangerous  disturbance  of  its 
work.  But  that  recognition  announces  that  this 
science,  with  all  its  means,  does  not  create  the  whole 
deep  of  reality.  The  higher  stages  can  now  throw 
backwards  light  upon  the  lower  stages ;  they  do  that, 
for  example,  in  the  Theory  of  Knowledge,  where  the 
fundamental  construction  of  nature  is  turned  into  a 
problem,  and  the  contact  between  this  and  the 
mental  organism  is  set  forth  ;  for  thus  we  obtain 
universal  truths  which  are  distinguished  from  the 
merely  human  forms  of  life  and  its  presentations. 
Also,  the  higher  stages  accomplish  this  through 
artistic  reflection ;  here  the  inner  life  of  things  seems 
to  be  experienced.  Fundamental  facts  of  the  life  of 
nature,  which  otherwise  had  been  considered  as  self- 
evident,  become  now  a  problem,  and  carry  us  to  a 
deepening  of  the  total-view  of  things,  as,  for  example, 
in  the  thorough-going  subjection  of  all  to  law,  effects 
of  change,  constitution  of  forms,  the  ascent  of  the 
world-movement.  We  must  never  contract  the 
exact  and  speculative  consideration  of  things,  but 
we  must  not  misconstrue  the  conclusions  which 
issue  from  sucli  a  consideration. 

In  such  a  connection  there  exists  between  Nature  and 
Spirit  a  characteristic  relation — a  relation  of  opposites 
as  well  as  of  union.  First  of  all,  let  us  consider  the 
opposites.  Where  Nature  and  Spirit  stand  in  opposi- 
tion to  one  another,  as  has  already  been  shown  in 
the  present  work,  where  a  hemmed-in  life  and  an 
independent  life  rise  sharply  one  from  the  other, 
there    the    greatness    of    the    spirit     cannot     possibly 


168  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

mean  the  same  as  the  simple  ascent  of  nature;  for 
thus  the  ascent  of  spirit  can  signify  no  more  than 
what  the  classical  epoch    of  literature  in   Germany 
stated  concerning  it,  viz.,  that  upon  the  higher  stages 
the  development  and  the  formation  had   arrived  at 
only  a  greater  consciousness  and  freedom  than  were 
visible   on   the    lower   unconscious    and    hemmed-in 
levels.      To    such    a    view    the    phenomena    seem 
different  only  here  and  there  through  the  heightening 
of  the  functions  of  the  intellect.     In  our  view,  on 
the  contrary,  the  difference  reaches  back  beyond  the 
intellect  into  the  Whole ;  the  kingdoms  of  relations 
and    of   the   total-    and    self-life  widen    themselves 
further  and  further.     Therefore  the  two  sides  which 
ordinary    notion    and    also    language    allow   to   flow 
together,  must  before  all  else  be  clearly  separated, 
and  the  boundaries  between  them  fixed ;  a  constant 
struggle  is  needed  against  their  admixture  with  all 
its  accompanying  sleepiness.     Herewith  the  passage 
from   the    one   to    the   other   will    not    appear   as  a 
peaceful  and  secure  growth,  as  we  are  led  to  suppose 
through   the   doctrine  of  evolution,   but  the  higher 
must  first  of  all  loosen  itself  in  a  new  direction  and 
find  a  fastening  in  itself;    and  then  this  higher  can 
turn  back  to  the  lower  and  discover  its  kinship  in  it. 
For  a  fact  can   certainly  not  remain  in  a  state  of 
full  and  pointed  opposition  if  the  All  is  not  to  fall 
asunder.     Also,  nature  must  somehow  serve  the  aims 
which  come  forth  in  the  Spiritual  Life ;  the  powerful 
stirring  of  energies  which  culminate  in  nature  must 
somehow  assist  in  the  development  of  a  self-life,  and 
the  ascent  to  this  life  brings  forth  a  further  develop- 
ment and  intimacy.     Therefore  points  of  contact  and 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    169 

points  of  exit  originate  where  the  lower  suddenly 
seems  to  pass  into  the  higher.  But  with  the  recogni- 
tion of  such  a  chain  of  life  the  independence  of  the 
higher  must  always  be  guarded,  for  the  lower  stage 
may  bring  forth  something  to  the  contrary  of  what 
the  higher  brings  forth. 

The  total- view  shows  us  in  the  relationship  of  both 
provinces  more  opposition  and  more  insecurity  than 
the  pantheistic  view  which  runs  through  modern 
culture  presents,  but  it  shows  as  well  more  expansion 
and  more  progressive  acts.  And  also  along  with 
the  movement  depth  is  gained. 

(7)  The  Situation  of  Man. — The  attitude  of  man 
is  essentially  changed  when  the  greatness  and  the 
success  of  life  depend  on  a  participation  in  a  super- 
human Spiritual  Life.  In  the  first  place,  he  appears 
placed  most  strongly  against  the  customary  notions 
of  things.  We  are  accustomed  to  view  man  as  the 
meeting-point  of  divergence  of  worlds,  and  to 
attribute  to  him  on  account  of  his  characteristic 
nature  an  incomparable  worth :  this  cannot  any 
longer  be  asserted  of  him.  For  the  New  and  the 
Higher  lie  in  the  Spiritual  Life  as  openings  of  an 
independent  inner  world,  and  not  in  man  as  mere 
man.  For  a  long,  long  time  he  hardly  left  the 
bounds  of  nature,  and  when  at  last  the  Spiritual  Life 
dawned  within  him,  that  life  was  not  so  much  his 
own  work  as  the  communication  of  a  superior 
standard.  When  the  Spiritual  Life  developed 
further  in  the  human  province,  that  province  was  in 
no  way  won.  Far  more  does  the  lower  mode  of  life 
remain,  shows  the  most  stubborn  resistance,  and 
draws  the  Spiritual    Life    down    to  the  lower  level  ; 


170  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

thus  the  ordinary  situation  becomes  one  of  a  semi- 
spirituality   in    which    the  greatness   and   originality 
of  the  Spiritual   Life  is  lost.       Such  a  sharp  diver- 
gence  of  man  from   the   Spiritual    Life   places   the 
problems  in  a  new  light   and  heightens  everywhere 
the  extension   of  the   activity.     Thus,  for  example, 
morality  may  never   be   held   as   a   natural   quality 
or   product   of  man ;    what   even   the   ordinary   life 
produces  does  not  raise  itself  far  above  the  animal 
instincts   and   impulses ;    definite   morality   with    its 
shifting   of  the  centre   of  gravity   of  life   is   funda- 
mentally different  from  such  instincts  and  impulses, 
but  such  morality  becomes  possible  first  of  all  from 
the  Spiritual  Life,  and  the  ascent  to  this  life  remains  a 
continuous  problem,  and,  as  well,  succeeds  but  in  the 
smallest  measure.     Thus   the  decisive  turning-point 
appears  first  of  all  in  the  life  of  a  man ;  it  does  not 
appear  with   his   entrance   into   this   world  as  mere 
man. 

All  this  doubtless  involves  a  strong  humiliation  of 
man  as  mere  man.  But  there  corresponds  to  the 
degradation  an  elevation,  as  to  man  there  opens  the 
possibility  of  a  participation  in  a  new  grade  of 
reality  which  lies  beyond  the  entanglements  of  the 
human  province.  All  that  characterises  the  Spiritual 
Life — its  universality,  its  sovereignty,  its  autonomy 
— can  become  the  possession  of  the  man  who 
mounts ;  now  the  spiritual  contents  can  rise  above 
the  purely  human  forms  of  life  ;  now  the  anthropo- 
morphism which  had  turned  the  whole  of  reality 
into  a  mere  reflex  of  human  thoughts,  feelings,  and 
strivings,  can  be  partially  if  not  entirely  cast  off,  and 
can    be   gripped    by    a  superior   standard ;    now    the 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    171 

struggle  of  man  against  the  mere-human  becomes 
possible,  and  world-experiences  enter  into  his  narrow 
province,  and  through  such  effects  his  whole 
attitude  is  changed.  Out  of  the  Spiritual  Life  and 
not  out  of  the  mere-human  are  all  the  problems  to  be 
seized  and  all  the  provinces  to  be  formed.  Right  and 
morality,  art  and  science,  are  spiritual  in  the  sense 
that  they  are  not  developments  of  the  bare  man,  but 
developments  of  the  Spiritual  Life  in  man.  Also, 
the  religious  problem  must  transform  itself  in  an 
essential  manner,  in  which  it  will  deal  not  concerning 
the  preservation  of  the  petty-human  but  concerning 
the  Spiritual  Life  in  man. 

Further,  life  as  a  whole  receives  throughout  a 
special  character  in  the  fact  that  its  main  connection, 
its  fundamental  relationship,  becomes  evermore  the 
Spiritual  Life.  This  characteristic  becomes  clear 
through  comparison  with  the  historical  and  tra- 
ditional types  of  life.  The  religious  type  of  life 
which  men  have  most  welcomed  gave  to  the  life 
the  main  connection  with  God,  and  allowed  all  the 
tributaries  of  life  to  flow  into  the  current  of  religion ; 
there  came  a  time,  however,  when  such  a  conception 
proved  too  narrow,  and  when  the  fundamental  con- 
nection passed  into  a  region  of  grave  uncertainty. 
And  as  the  life  through  this  effect  turned  from  the 
"beyond"  to  a  "here  and  now,"  it  split  into  two 
main  portions  -the  cosmic  and  the  social.  In  the 
cosmic  portion,  the  strength  of  the  intellect  mainly 
opens  the  door  of  the  universe,  and  through  the 
winning  of  such  an  insight  the  whole  of  existence 
was  raised  ;  here  now  issues  the  construction  of 
relations  to  the  human   environment,   definite  con- 


172  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

elusions  are  arrived  at,  and  strong  co-operations  of 
humanity  take  place.  All  this  ought  to  bring  greater 
warmth  of  feeling  as  well  as  stronger  reason  into 
human  relationships.  This  tendency  has  produced 
great  and  energetic  results,  but  none  of  these  results 
individually  has  satisfied  the  whole  nature  of  man, 
and  even  collectively  they  have  failed  to  do  so.  The 
cosmic  guidance  of  life  threatens,  in  spite  of  all  its 
expansion,  to  become  cold  and  empty ;  and  the  social 
guidance,  with  all  its  nearness  and  warmth,  threatens 
to  become  narrow  and  confined.  These  guides  of 
life,  however,  have  the  common  disadvantage  in  that 
the  fundamental  relationship  does  not  lie  within  the 
individual  life,  but  appears  as  something  without. 
It  is  only  in  the  drift  of  the  Spiritual  Life  that 
the  Life-process  becomes  itself,  for  here  it  deals  with 
nothing  other  than  the  inmost  nature  of  man.  Thus 
it  is  here  alone  that  the  life  proves  itself,  and  it  is 
here,  too,  that  an  encompassing  foundation  is  won, 
upon  which  the  relationships  to  God,  the  world,  and 
human  society  have  to  be  grounded  and  constructed, 
and  a  counter-effect  to  all  one-sided  forms  of  life 
has  to  be  brought  forth. 

If  that  in  which  we  recognise  the  inmost  nature  of 
man  is  to  be  found  here,  then  the  man's  view  passes 
from  his  immediate  existence  to  a  far-off  goal.  In 
man  there  are  different  degrees  of  reality,  different 
meeting-points  of  worlds,  and  thus  the  man's  own 
decision  must  not  fail.  But  such  a  decision  lies  not 
in  individual  resolutions  and  acts,  but  it  goes  through 
the  whole  of  life.  And  it  is  not  to  be  understood 
that  the  individual  portions  of  his  nature  would  offer 
him   for  selection  different  worlds   merely  from  the 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    173 

outside,  and  that  he  could  have  merely  an  option 
which  to  accept  or  reject.  Man  is  always  carried  by 
the  total-life  of  the  All ;  this  total-life  must  be 
effective  in  the  particular  portions  if  it  is  ever  to 
win  the  new  stages  of  life.  But  however  mysterious 
this  may  appear,  the  Whole  issues  not  into  a  Whole 
without  the  vivification  and  characteristic  decision  of 
the  individual  portions  ;  here  the  movement  of  the 
All  culminates  through  our  own  appropriation  alone ; 
the  movement  issues  only  through  a  joyous  affirma- 
tion of  that  which  belongs  to  us,  and  which,  without 
recognition,  cannot  become  ours.  Through  this  we 
become  co-workers,  and,  indeed,  are  called  to  become 
co-carriers  of  the  All ;  thus  our  life  gains  an  ethical 
character  from  its  very  foundation—  an  ethical  which 
shows  the  meaning  of  our  adoption  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  as  our  true  nature,  as  the  ascent  to  our  own 
heights  and  to  infinity.  This  work  is  no  longer  that 
of  a  special  province,  but  it  penetrates  the  whole 
circumference  of  life,  and  places  activity  at  all  times 
before  an  Kit  her — Or.  At  the  same  time,  rigid 
determinism  is  broken,  without  our  having  to  admit 
that  decision  depends  on  the  chance  of  the  moment. 
For  it  is  the  fundamental  presupposition  of  deter- 
minism that  it  fits  man  well  with  a  particular  world- 
order,  and  allows  him  to  be  bound  entirely  by  such 
an  order.  Thus  all  mans  acts  from  their  very 
beginning  are  fixed,  and  life  divests  itself  of  all 
expectation.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  meeting- 
point  of  two  unique  worlds  places  the  fact  in  a  totally 
different  light;  the  life  now  is  enabled  to  transform 
ils  main  tendency  into  a  free  act,  and  through  this  to 
gain  a  genuine  present -moment  of  consciousness. 


174  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

According    to    our    method    of    treatment    the 
Spiritual  Life  transforms  itself  from  being  an  alleged 
possession  to  being  a  difficult  problem,  and  this  places 
the  main  tendency  of  life  not  in  any  one  particular 
act,  but  makes  the  Spiritual  Life  a  fact  of  unutterable 
toil  which  grants  humanity  as  well  as  the  individual 
a  real  history.     The  Spiritual  Life  was  not  on   our 
view  a  mere  form  of  life  which  could  be  assimilated 
in  a  hurried  resolution  ;  but  through  an  inverted  order 
of  the  first  impression  of  things,  a  new  and  definite 
kind    of  reality  is  wrung   from  it  which  draws   the 
whole  periphery  of  life  into  itself.     The  life  has  now 
to   discover   an  all-encompassing   unity  from   which 
each  particular  province  is  shaped  in  a  characteristic 
manner.      This,    however,  is   an  enormous  problem, 
and  forms  the  soul  of  all  historical  work.     We   do 
not  find  ourselves  from   the   beginning   in    spiritual 
connections,  and  do  not  find  our  way  securely,  but 
the  main  direction  can  be  found  and  before  all  else 
it  must  be  sought — sought  through  toilsome  experi- 
ences and  on  perilous  paths.      But  primarily  some 
kind  of  life-connection,  some  kind  of  governing  aim, 
must  rise  out  of  the  initial  chaos,  for  such  connections 
and  aims  are  the  salient  parts — the  hypotheses — of  life, 
full  of  risks  and  dangers,  but  yet  indispensable,  be- 
cause thus  alone  can  life  as  a  Whole  become  a  current, 
thus  alone  can  questions  concerning  the  Whole  become 
possible,  thus   alone  can   experiences  of  the  Whole 
originate  which  in  their  turn  become  a  standard  in 
the   total-existence  of  life.     Now  opposition   grows, 
hinders  the  movement,  and  drives  it  out  of  its  course. 
But  new  points  of  concentration  may  grow  and  under- 
take the  erection  of  reality.     In  this  connection  the 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    175 

growth  does  not  take  place — be  it  through  a  peaceful 
movement  or  through  a  spiral  of  opposites — through 
mere  associations  furthered  by  a  kind  of  surface- 
necessity  ;  things  do  not  fit  into  one  another  as  in  the 
growth  of  a  pyramid,  but  ever  anew,  doubt  and  violent 
emotion  strike  down  to  the  foundation  of  life ;  ever 
anew  one  has  to  struggle  for  the  Whole.  What  issues, 
however,  as  connections — so  far  as  it  is  of  a  spiritual 
kind — issues  not  in  a  ready-made  manner  from  any 
part  in  our  nature,  but  has  to  be  brought  forth 
through  our  own  exertions.  In  this  manner,  history 
cannot  become  a  struggle  for  the  content  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  unless  the  main  standard  of  life  is  laid 
beyond  the  bare  results  of  the  times  in  a  timeless 
order.  The  furtherance  of  the  sub  specie  ceternztatis 
holds  not  only  and  mainly  for  knowledge,  but  in  the 
first  place  for  the  Whole  of  life.  The  Spiritual  Life 
could  not  seek  in  history  itself  the  unfolding  of  its 
own  nature  unless  history  possessed  in  its  kernel  an 
over-historical  nature.  Time  is  something  of  a 
phantom,  and  all  life  in  it  something  of  an  appear- 
ance and  a  shadow  if  the  foundation  of  an  eternity 
fails  in  it,  and  if,  out  of  its  changes  and  transforma- 
tions, nothing  rises  up  to  save  man  for  an  eternal 
existence.  And  if  all  depends  on  the  slender  thread 
of  the  fleeting  moment  of  the  present  which  illumines 
and  endures  merely  for  a  twinkling  of  an  eye  but  to 
sink  into  the  abyss  of  nothingness,  then  all  life  would 
mean  a  mere  exit  into  death.  Thus  without  eternity 
there  is  no  spirituality,  and  without  connection  there 
is  no  content  of  life.  Hut  what  is  enthroned  in  itself 
above  time  becomes  lor  the  man  who  wins  such  a 
spirituality,  first,  of   all,   au    immense    problem    which 


17(5  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

allows  itself  to  be  grasped  on  the  Held  of  time  alone ; 
and.  also,  the  Eternal  which  works  within  us  and 
which  hovers  before  us  on  the  horizon  of  eternity  can 
become  our  full  possession  only  through  the  move- 
ment of  time.  To  wish  to  check  this  movement  and 
to  arrest  the  course  of  time,  this  means  not  to  serve 
eternity  but  to  ascribe  to  time  what  belongs  to  eternity. 
We  see  accordingly  how  our  conception  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  heightened  powerfully  the  significance 
and  the  span  of  history,  but  always  only  under  the 
hypothesis  of  an  Eternal  Order  of  things  out  of 
which  history  is  experienced.  A  full  abandonment 
to  history,  which  is  often  witnessed  on  the  ordinary 
level  of  life,  becomes  an  inward  subversion ;  with  all 
its  significance,  history  can  only  be  the  arena  of  the 
struggle  for  the  Spiritual  Life ;  it  is  always  only  a 
second  and  never  a  first.  But  even  as  a  second, 
history  grows  powerfully,  so  that  it  signifies  not  the 
mere  extension  of  a  given  thread  but  an  ascent  of  a 
new  life,  and  through  this  life  it  handles  not  the  web 
of  a  bare  outline  but  the  growth  of  a  full  reality. 
What,  however,  holds  valid  for  humanity  holds  valid 
also  for  the  individual :  the  individual's  life  contains 
a  great  problem  and  an  original  decision  ;  values  such 
as  personality  and  spiritual  individuality  do  not  fall 
on  him  as  a  shower,  but  have  to  be  wrung  man- 
fully in  the  inward  ascent  of  life.  Also,  the  individual 
will  give  all  these  movements  a  spiritual  character, 
and  will  be  able  to  verify  them  only  if  he  wins  a 
character  above  the  flux  of  time ;  and  from  this 
standard,  through  all  the  multi-coloured  manifold 
of  the  external  tasks,  seeks  before  all  else  his  own 
self — his  own  essence. 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    177 

(8)  Conclusions  for  the  Method  and  the  Task  of  Life. 
— Spiritual  Life  can  unfold  itself  in  man  only  when 
significant  transformations  take  place  in  the  inward 
web  of  his  being,  and  new  paths  of  reflection  become 
necessary.  We  shall  follow  these  changes  here  only 
in  so  far  as  they  bear  on  the  religious  problems  to 
which  this  work  is  dedicated. 

What  precedes  the  Spiritual  life  in  man  cannot 
be  grasped  by  science  until  science  constructs  a  new 
method  and  marks  out  such  a  method  from  all 
others.  There  is,  however,  a  double  aspect  of  the 
original  manner  in  which  spirituality  develops  within 
the  human  province.  It  develops  itself,  for  example, 
under  the  conditions  of  empirical  psychic  life,  and, 
indeed,  with  energies  which  have  to  wrestle  with 
such  a  life.  But  spirituality  is  never  a  mere  product 
of  the  empirical  psychic  life.  This  psychic  life  is 
bound  up  with  the  bodily  organism,  is  scattered  in 
the  individual,  is  conceived  as  an  incessant  flux  ;  there- 
fore it  never  longs,  through  its  own  potency,  to  reach 
a  connected  world  or  a  durable  truth  ;  and  without 
such  there  is  neither  Spiritual  Life  nor  Spiritual 
content.  To  turn  the  Spiritual  Life  into  a  mere 
procedure  of  psychic  existence  is  to  destroy  it  in  its 
very  foundation.  The  Spiritual  Life  must  possess 
from  the  beginning  not  only  an  independence  and 
self-value,  but  it  must  also  maintain  these;  when  it 
develops  under  the  conditions  of  empirical  psychic 
life,  it  must,  with  an  unswerving  nature,  shine 
through  all  the  strangeness  and  transientness  of 
human  psychic  life.  At  the  same  time,  spirituality, 
first  of  all,  works  as  an  indefinite  and  weak  potency. 

It  lias  fo  find  ifs  own   nature  which,  on  the  one  side, 

12 


ITS  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

builds  a  foundation,  but  which,  on  the  other  side,  has 
to  come  to  an  understanding  with  the  psychical 
existence  and  gain  its  own  energies  for  higher  ends. 
To  leave  such  a  psychic  existence  calmly  on  one  side 
is  to  set  back  the  energy  of  the  Life- process  and  to 
rest  satisfied  with  a  pallid  and  rigid  spirituality. 
Both  sides  are  to  be  distinguished  clearly,  and  at  the 
same  time  brought  into  a  living  connection. 

To  this  double-sidedness  of  life  there  corresponds  a 
twofold  method.  These  methods  are  the  Noological 
and  the  Psychological  Methods.  To  explain  noo- 
logically  means  to  arrange  the  whole  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  as  a  special  spiritual  activity,  to  ascertain  its 
position  and  problem,  and  through  such  an  adapta- 
tion to  illumine  the  whole  and  raise  its  potencies. 
To  explain  psychologically,  on  the  contrary,  means 
to  investigate  how  man  arrives  at  the  comprehension 
and  appropriation  of  a  spiritual  content  and  especially 
of  a  Spiritual  Life,  with  what  psychic  aids  is  the 
spiritual  content  worked  out,  how  the  interest  of 
man  for  all  this  is  to  be  raised,  and  how  his  energy 
for  the  enterprise  is  to  be  won.  Here  one  has  to 
proceed  from  an  initial  point  hardly  discernible,  and, 
step  by  step,  discover  the  way  of  ascent ;  thus  the 
psychological  method  becomes  at  the  same  time  a 
psychogenetic  method.  The  main  condition  of  the 
successful  handling  of  this  question  is  that  both 
methods  are  to  be  held  sufficiently  apart  in  order 
that  the  conclusions  of  both  may  not  flow  together 
and  yet  may  form  a  fruitful  completion. 

Such  separation  and  union  of  both  methods  and 
their  corresponding  realities  make  it  possible  to  under- 
stand  how  to  overcome  inwardly  the  old   antithesis 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    179 

between  Idealism  and  Realism.  The  fundamental 
truth  of  Idealism  is  that  the  spiritual  contents 
establish  an  independence  and  a  self-value  over 
against  the  individual,  that  they  train  him  with 
superior  energy,  and  that  they  are  not  material  for 
his  purely  human  welfare.  In  the  noological  method 
this  truth  obtains  a  full  recognition.  Realism,  how- 
ever, has  its  rights  in  the  forward  sweep  of  the 
particular  human  side  of  life  with  all  its  diversions, 
its  constraints,  and  its  predominant  natural  character. 
Viewed  from  this  standpoint,  the  main  fact  is, 
that  life  is  raised  out  of  the  idle  calm  of  the 
rigid  indifference  of  its  initial  stages,  and  is  brought 
into  a  current ;  in  order  to  bring  this  about,  much 
is  urgently  needful  by  man,  which  cannot  originate, 
prior  to  the  appearance  of  the  spiritual  estimation 
of  values,  but  these  needful  things  become  his  when 
he  is  set  in  a  strong  current ;  then,  on  the  one  hand, 
anxiety  for  external  existence,  division  into  parties, 
ambition,  etc.,  and  on  the  other  hand,  the  mechanism 
of  the  psychic  life  with  its  association,  reproduction, 
etc.,  are  all  seen  in  a  new  light.  These  motive- 
powers  would  certainly  never  produce  a  spiritual 
content  out  of  man's  own  ability  ;  such  a  content  is 
only  reachable  if  the  movement  of  life  raises  man 
out  of  and  above  the  initial  performances  and  the 
initial  motives.  No  mechanism,  either  of  soul  or  of 
society,  is  able  to  accomplish  this  ;  it  can  be  accom- 
plished alone  by  an  inward  spirituality  in  man. 
Through  such  a  conception,  Realism  and  Idealism 
are  no  further  irreconcilable  opponents,  but  two  sides 
of  one  encompassing  life;  one  may  grow  alongside 
the  other  but  not  at  the  expense  of  the  other.      In- 


180  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

died,  the  more  the  content  of  the  Spiritual  Life 
grows,  the  more  becomes  necessary  on  the  side  of 
psychic  existence ;  the  more  we  submerge  ourselves 
in  this  psychic  experience,  the  greater  appears  the 
superiority  of  the  Spiritual  Ufe. 

The  noological  method  is  new  in  name  only,  and 
in  the  following  connection  :  it  actually  extends  every- 
where where  logical,  ethical,  and  aesthetic  conceptions 
are  differentiated  from  the  empirico-psychological 
conceptions.  In  Kant,  and  since  his  time,  such  a 
differentiation  has  been  made  with  great  clearness. 
This  differentiation  is,  however,  indispensable,  be- 
cause there  is  no  possibility  of  an  independence  of 
the  particular  provinces  without  an  independence  of 
the  Spiritual  Life  as  a  Whole.  Such  a  conclusion 
comes  to  expression  in  the  noological  method.  It 
is  different  throughout  from  the  old  method  of  an 
ontological  metaphysic.  This  latter  sought  especially 
to  make  phenomena  intelligible  through  world-con- 
ceptions which  had  been  gained  through  strong 
subjective  theories  —  theories,  in  the  main,  which 
were  shadows  of  the  living  content  and  concreteness 
of  reality.  On  the  contrary,  the  noological  method 
understands  the  particular  out  of  an  encompassing 
and  basal  Whole  of  life.  The  principle  of  explana- 
tion is  not  brought  in  from  without,  but  is  inwardly 
present,  or  at  least  allows  itself  to  be  brought  to  a 
present  moment  in  consciousness :  it  is  in  the  last 
resort,  with  all  its  arrangements  through  freedom, 
a  fact  and  an  experience.  Herewith  is  not  only  a 
higher  degree  of  security  won,  but  the  linking  of 
each  element  with  the  Whole  must  lead  to  an  inward 
renewal  and  deepening  as  well  as  to  a  clearer  impress 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    181 

of  the  characteristic  features.  Therefore,  the  founda- 
tion of  religion  must  be  of  a  noological  and  not  of  a 
speculative  kind :  the  psychological  method  accord- 
ingly stands  in  a  secondary  place. 

It  is,  however,  necessary  to  raise  up  the  Spiritual 
Life  not  only  from  the  empirical  psychic  life,  but 
even  within  itself  it  needs  a  further  separation.  In 
the  Spiritual  Life  we  recognised  a  total -life — a  world  ; 
but  our  ordinary  immediate  life  flows  in  homogeneous 
individual  acts  as  a  succession  of  events  and  activities, 
and  this  seems  to  exclude  all  definite  spirituality. 
This  contradiction  is  to  be  overcome  through  an 
inner  gradation  of  life  alone  :  in  individual  acts  a 
Whole  must  be  able  to  be  present,  but  the  life 
acquires  an  entirely  different  character  as  to  whether 
it  discovers  such  a  Whole  present  or  not.  Were  the 
life  to  shift  back  beyond  the  surface  of  the  individual 
events,  then  what  appears  tangible  to  the  individual 
must  in  some  kind  of  way  become  conscious,  work- 
able, and  accessible.  That  possibility  is  really  dis- 
covered and  appears  in  clear  results.  It  is  only  the 
presence  of  a  Whole  that  enables  the  individual 
thoughts  to  become  an  expression  of  a  Weltan- 
schauung, and  enables  the  individual  acts  to  become 
the  expression  of  a  moral  character;  for  it  is  only  a 
continuous  construction  of  an  elevated  thought  that 
can  mould  the  material  and  weld  a  systematic  order 
of  the  whole  particular  provinces.  This  presence  of 
the  Whole  in  the  particular  can  have  very  different 
grades.  For  example,  great  are  those  thinkers  alone 
whose  total  method  reaches  into  each  particular,  even 
into  the  smallest  achievement ;  great  is  that  moral 
character    alone   which    sets    its   stamp   on   each   par- 


182  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

ticular  act :  thus  Substance  and  Existence  differentiate 
themselves  in  life.  Substance  is  to  be  conceived  not 
as  an  inaccessible  entity,  but  as  the  kernel  of  the 
Life-process  itself;  not  as  a  species  fixed  for  all 
times,  but  as  something  conceivable  only  through 
the  process  of  its  construction,  and  as  something 
gifted  with  power  through  the  process  of  its  trans- 
formation. The  development  in  which  the  Spiritual 
Life  unfolds  itself  in  man  strikes  itself  into  the 
substance  as  well,  and  it  is  in  this  that  the  main 
extension  of  life  lies,  because  in  the  movement  a 
struggle  for  the  substance  itself  is  taking  place.  The 
first  achievements  are  mere  attempts  which  have  to 
stand  the  test  of  experience,  and  which,  through  such 
a  test,  can  be  driven  forward  to  a  further  development 
and  even  transformation.  Such  tests  and  experiences 
need  a  development  towards  particular  activities ; 
this  is  the  substance  itself  now  assigned  to  the 
existence-side  of  life.  But  in  order  to  make  some 
contribution  to  the  solution  of  the  problem,  the 
existence-side  must  found  a  certain  independence 
over  against  the  substance,  for  if  the  substance  meant 
nothing  more  than  its  immediate  momentary  ex- 
pression, the  life  would  remain  tied  to  a  situation 
reached  once  for  all.  And  thus  life  could  never 
become  a  problem  and  never  desire  a  movement ; 
and  without  both  there  is  not  possible  for  man,  in  the 
midst  of  all  his  unreadiness,  any  further  development. 
Thus,  once  more,  we  find  a  double-sided  aspect  of 
life,  which  carries  an  incessant  problem  in  itself,  and 
at  the  same  time  carries  a  germ  of  entanglements  of 
opposing  kinds.  What  is  imbedded  in  life  from  the 
substance    has    continually  to  be  transformed  into  a 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    18JJ 

free  activity,  and  is  to  be  explained  through  such 
an  activity.  The  free  activity,  however,  needs  a 
return-movement  to  the  substance  in  order  not  to 
fall  into  vague  indecision.  The  individual  as  well  as 
the  community  show  an  opposite  tendency.  Men 
and  times  can  transform  their  lives  simply  into  a 
movement — into  a  play  of  free-energies — without 
grasping  the  radical  foundation,  or  without  even 
striving  after  such  a  foundation.  Then  shallow  men 
arise  who,  in  all  their  agility  and  industry,  possess  no 
souls,  but  merely  exist— bare  creatures  of  the  environ- 
ment, and  barren  times,  though  full  of  excitement 
and  business  which  possess  no  spiritual  base;  men 
and  times  that  seek  to  fill  the  needs  of  life  through 
endless  variations  and  combinations  of  a  free  and 
disconnected  activity. 

But  the  contrary  is  also  possible  :  a  substance  ready- 
made  does  not  enter  into  the  region  of  explanation, 
and  consequently  never  becomes  the  full  possession  of 
man.  It  is  so  with  individuals  and  so  with  times. 
Not  seldom  do  we  find  a  spiritual  foundation  ready 
and  at  hand,  but  it  is  not  worked  out;  although  in 
one's  own  possession,  it  remains  as  something  alien 
and  inaccessible.  These  are  the  dull  and  helpless 
men  and  times  who  cannot  find  their  own  depth,  but 
follow  in  the  direction  of  the  shallows  of  life  and  not 
in  the  direction  of  what  the  deep  contains.  Also, 
in  spiritual  provinces  and  especially  in  religion, 
the  explanation  of  the  substance  fails  often  to 
correspond  with,  and,  indeed,  often  contradicts,  its 
validity  ;  what  is  willed  and  estimated  at  the  base 
can  often  lie  beneath  a  growing  crust  of  thought. 
Throughout   the    whole    history  of  Christianity  this 


184  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

cleft  between  substance  and  its  explanation  appears  ; 
ever  arises  the  need  to  prove  the  latter,  and  to  seek 
the  former. 

Where  the  analysis  into  substance  and  existence  is 
recognised,  the  kernel  of  life  is  then  never  sought  in 
the  so-called  faculties  of  thought,  feeling,  and  will — 
neither  in  either  nor  in  their  sum.     These  different 
phases  of  the  one  consciousness  belong  to  the  substance 
just  referred  to,  and  never  out  of  their  own  power  can 
they  produce  a  spiritual  content ;  far  more  do  they 
develop   in  a  connection   with   some   kind   of  Life-, 
substance.     Such  a  deepening  of  reality  alone  is  able 
to  free  us  from  the  intellectualism  which  we  discover 
to-day  as  so  insufficient,  but  into  which,  notwithstand- 
ing all  our  troubles  and  toils,  we  tend  to  sink  back 
ever  anew.     We  remain  without  overcoming  so  long 
as  the  existing  activities  signify  to  us  the  whole  of  life. 
In  the  provinces  of  such  existent  activities  the  intelli- 
gence stands  in  the  foreground  ;  that  which  struggles 
to  reach  up  to  the  level  of  a  spiritual  content  has  to 
explain    itself  at  the   bar   of  intelligence   and   work 
from   that  judgment  into  the   remaining   provinces. 
When  the  fact  is  recognised  that  thought  itself,  in 
so  far  as  it  is  of  a  productive  and  not  merely  of  a 
reflective   kind,   possesses   behind  itself  a  basal   and 
directive  activity  of  the  Whole  and  brings  forth  its 
creativeness  from  this  basal  region,  a  secure  conquest 
over    intellectualism   is   gained.      Then    it    becomes 
clear  that   in   the  movement  of  life  the  handling  is 
not  dealing  with  an  assimilation  of  a  "  given  "  reality, 
but  with  an  ascent  to  a  definite  reality ;  the  struggle 
is    not    concerning    interpretations    but    concerning 
contents. 


PROGRESSIVE  AUTONOMY  OF  SPIRITUAL  LIFE    185 

Thus  the  problem  of  life  is  raised  above  the 
antithesis  of  intellectualism  and  voluntarism  —  for 
voluntarism  is  a  mere  reversal  of  intellectualism, 
and  remains  bound  on  the  mere  level  of  bare 
experience.  The  powers  of  intellect  and  will  thus 
cannot  form  the  kernel  of  man's  nature,  far  less  can 
they  be  carried  into  the  universe  and  be  raised  to  the 
substance  of  the  All.  It  is  not  from  the  forms  of 
phenomena  but  from  the  substance  of  life  that  any 
hope  arises  of  illumining  the  deep  night  which 
wraps  our  life  and  our  fundamental  relation  to  reality. 
All  pictorial  conceptions  of  these  forms  of  phenomena 
are  mere  human  projections,  intellectual  plays  of  a 
Hying  imagination. 

When,  however,  the  recognition  of  that  depth 
heightens  powerfully  the  task  of  life,  it  heightens  at 
the  same  time  the  inward  movement  of  life,  and  the 
attention  extends  over  the  whole  expanse  of  life. 
For  now  the  truth  of  the  Whole  becomes  anew  in 
each  individual  position  a  problem  ;  each  point  has  to 
prove,  to  strengthen,  and  to  adjust  its  truth.  This 
yields  also  a  characteristic  organisation  of  the  work 
of  culture.  Here  the  total-view  of  life  is  not  now 
included  in  one  particular  province,  as,  for  example, 
in  religion  or  metaphysics,  which  is  supposed  to  be 
able  to  include  and  to  further  all  the  other  provinces ; 
the  main  problem  lies  on  the  other  side  of  all  the 
branches  and  runs  through  them  all  ;  each  particular 
province  can  take  the  whole  question  into  itself, 
prove  it  in  its  own  experience,  and  answer  it  in  its 
own  way.  All  great  achievements  of  the  particular 
provinces  possess  a  grasp  of  the  Whole  and  at  the 
same  time  a  furthering  of  the  Whole.     This  signifies 


186  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

an  equality  of  rights  of  the  different  branches ;  it 
forbids  all  hierarchic  gradation  and  subordination  of 
the  middle-ages  type.  The  differentiation  of  sub- 
stance and  existence  works  in  that  it  renders  life 
more  eventful,  freer,  richer. 

Accordingly,  we  see  life  all  along  taking  a  charac- 
teristic shape,  and  we  find  this  characteristic  extend 
from  an  external  outline  into  the  innermost  web. 
What  always  yielded  itself  to  the  individual  drew  its 
strength  and  found  its  connection  in  a  particular 
governing  and  thorough-going  thought— the  thought 
of  an  opening  of  a  new  grade  of  reality,  of  a  kingdom 
of  independent  inwardness  within  the  province  of  man. 
And  this  thought  will  lead  us  further  into  the  province 
of  religion.  Our  discussion  hitherto  has  been  necessary 
in  order  to  obtain  a  fixed  foundation  ;  now  we  are  to 
handle  the  matter  direct. 


PART  II.— THE  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF 
UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

(Continued) 

CHAPTER   VIII 

c.  The  Fact  of  Universal  Religion 

(1)   The  Turn  to  Religion, 

(a)  The  Problem  of  Religion  in  General. — In  con- 
nection with  the  turn  towards  religion,  it  is  necessary 
before  all  else  to  establish  what  is  essential  and  indis- 
pensable to  religion — to  religion  in  each  and  every 
sense.  Before  all  else  the  main  point  is  this  :  religion 
holds  up  before  us,  over  against  the  surrounding  world, 
a  new  kind  of  existence,  a  new  order  of  things,  and 
divides  reality  into  different  provinces  and  worlds. 
That  religion  may  be  obtained  without  a  belief  in 
God  is  proved  by  ancient  and  definite  Buddhism  ;  but 
without  a  dualism  of  worlds,  without  an  outlook  on  a 
new  existence,  religion  becomes  a  mere  empty  sound. 
The  mere  acknowledgment  of  a  higher  order,  however, 
gives  us  in  no  way  a  religion.  That  higher  order 
must  not  merely  exist  in  itself:  it  must  also  be 
effective  for  us,  it  must  place  our  existence  on  a  new 
foundation,  and  must  be  conceived  by  us  as  a  main 
fact ;  otherwise  it  remains,  in  spite  of  an  external 
acknowledgment,  inwardly  strange  and  indifferent. 
The  mere  existence  of  deities  was  conceived  readily 

187 


188  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

enough  by  the  Epicureans.  How  barren  for  religion 
were  all  the  diggings  for  the  final  "grounds"  of 
tilings  and  all  the  so-called  proofs  for  the  existence 
of  God  !  There  is  not,  therefore,  any  definite  religion 
without  the  living  presence  of  a  higher  world  within 
our  own  domain,  without  the  clash  of  two  worlds 
with  all  their  entanglement  and  irrationality.  But 
even  in  this  irrational  there  appears  especially  clear 
the  original  character,  the  transforming  afid  renewing 
energy  of  religion. 

Such  a  projection  of  a  new  world  into  our  life  is  a 
question  of  an  actual  kind ;  and  thus  appearing  as  a 
fundamental  fact,  the  question  is  not  to  be  placed  on 
one  side  but  to  be  proved.  But  with  all  its  actuality, 
the  question  does  not  deal  with  something  that  is 
individual  and  obvious.  Eckhart  ridicules  such  an 
attempt  as  this :  "  Many  people  hope  to  see  God  as 
one  sees  an  ox."  The  question  deals  with  something 
that  is  a  Whole  and  an  invisible.  Such  an  object 
cannot  come  to  man  from  the  outside  and  overwhelm 
him  with  sensuous  impressions ;  it  is  only  an  inward 
movement  that  can  bring  man  to  the  point  where 
truths,  otherwise  concealed,  reveal  themselves ;  and 
data,  otherwise  loose,  can  bind  themselves  into  a 
Whole  of  Reality.  True,  such  movements  desire  as 
well  the  work  of  thought,  but  such  a  help  remains  in 
the  service  of  the  main  actual  question. 

((3)  Nearer  View  of  the  Problem.  —  The  whole 
course  of  our  investigation  has  shown  the  character- 
istics and  greatness  of  man  to  consist  in  the  working 
within  him  of  a  total  reality ;  along  with  this  the 
Spiritual  Life  became  the  centre  of  all  the  investiga- 
tion.    This  must  verify  itself  also  in  connection  with 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION        189 

the  turn  to  religion.  It  is  not  the  entanglements  of 
the  mere-human  but  those  of  the  Spiritual  Life  which 
urge  us  to  religion  ;  it  is  not  the  deliverance  of  man  to 
human  happiness  but  the  self-reliance  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  which  stands  now  in  question.  All  this  an- 
nounces such  mighty  transformations  against  the 
customary  mode  of  life — transformations  which  aim 
to  present  before  man  the  fact  that  something  more 
is  indispensable  than  a  smug  arrangement  of  things. 

Such  a  method  does  not  only  place  religion  on 
securer  foundations,  but,  in  the  formation  of  its 
content,  meets  with  evil  entanglements.  So  long  as 
man  as  an  isolated  existence  stands  over  against  the 
All,  he  is  never  able  to  go  forth  out  of  his  own  move- 
ments and  needs  to  a  certainty  of  a  new  world. 
What  he  possesses  and  develops  on  his  subjective 
plane  can  never  mean  anything  more  than  that  which 
holds  valid  for  his  own  circle  of  presentations ;  if 
things  were  only  so,  the  danger  becomes  evident  that 
all  tilings  will  soon  be  explained  as  a  mere  brain- 
spinning  of  the  subject  himself.  If,  before  all  else, 
tlie  presence  of  a  ic  or  hi  within  man  is  not  recognised  as 
well  as  the  fact  that  he  can  be  raised  to  a  world-life, 
he  can  never  win  a  secure  conviction  of  a  Whole  of 
Reality,  and  never  be  certain  of  the  opening  of  a  new 
world. 

This  first  question  of  truth  requires  a  noo-centric 
and  not  an  anthropomorphic  standard  ;  the  thought- 
world  of*  religion  will  remain  under  the  ban  of  anthro- 
pomorphism  so  long  as  Spiritual  Life  and  the  human 
form  of  existence  are  not  differentiated.  The  old 
thinker  was  correct  in  stating  that  men  constructed 
the  gods   in   their  own   image;    but  when   such  con 


190  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

ceptions  were  refined,  they  were  more  and  more 
transformed  into  objects  of  thought.  But  the  re- 
fining of  the  conceptions  easily  makes  the  error  even 
more  dangerous,  and  entangles  the  objects  of  thought 
still  deeper  in  the  anthropomorphic  process.  This 
anthropomorphism,  however,  meets  with  a  strong 
opposition  the  more  the  progress  of  knowledge 
explains  to  man  his  position  in  the  All  of  things. 
Indeed,  the  more  his  dependence  on  nature  and,  at 
the  same  time,  the  speciality  of  his  species  are 
illumined,  the  more  appears  the  failure  to  raise  man 
to  the  All-Life  and  to  fill  up  the  ground  of  reality 
with  products  from  the  quarry  of  human  analogy. 

More  weighty  still  are  the  dangers  into  which  such 
an  anthropomorphic  conception  of  religion  brings  its 
inner  motive-powers.  A  religion  of  the  merely  human 
kind  makes  inevitably  the  quest  of  man's  happiness 
the  centre  of  all  activity;  it  rivets  him  to  the  in- 
activity to  which  he  seems  to  subordinate  and  even 
to  sacrifice  himself.  Of  what  avail  are  all  obedience 
and  all  sacrifice  if  man  only  renounces  in  order  to 
gain  more  of  the  very  stuff  which  binds  him  ?  In 
the  customary  order  of  religion  the  hope  of  a  great 
reward  threatens  to  adjust  the  character  in  a  prevail- 
ing manner  to  the  results  of  action,  and  to  link  that 
character  with  the  particular  external  worth  of  things 
and  thus  to  injure  greatly  the  pure  joy  in  the  good 
and  true,  and  to  endanger  the  inner  independence. 
It  appears  then  as  if  the  whole  world-order  is  here  in 
order  to  satisfy  our  "dear  self"  with  all  its  pettiness 
and  meanness,  and  to  bring  it  to  full  indulgence ;  it 
appears  as  if  "  God  had  forgotten  all  His  creatures 
with  the  exception  of  us  alone"  (Eckhart).     True, 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION        191 

the  deeper  atmosphere  of  all  religions  withstands  all 
such  shrinkage  upon  the  small  self,  and  leads  against 
such  a  notion  an  ardent  battle  for  the  purification  and 
refinement  of  the  soul.  But  in  this  struggle  the  full 
energy  does  not  enter  so  long  as  a  fundamental  libera- 
tion of  life  from  the  mere-human  and  the  anxiety  for 
its  small  happiness  have  not  taken  place.  And  in 
order  to  obtain  this  liberation,  radical  transformations 
are  necessary,  as  we  have  already  seen  in  the  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  Spiritual  Life  and  the  changes  it 
brought  along  with  itself;  there  is  no  ejection  of  the 
small  human  assertions  out  of  our  inner  world  without 
a  new  view  of  ourself,  and  there  is  no  unselfishness 
of  character  without  a  nature  superior  to  that  of  the 
bare  self.  Man  does  not  remain  a  mere  man — a  kind 
of  well-equipped  animal  —  a  kind  of  special  and 
vanishing  point  in  infinity  ;  he  is  called  to  acknow- 
ledge the  inner  presence  of  a  world,  and  to  reach 
such  a  world  in  spite  of  his  mere  singularity.  Only 
the  effort  for  a  deliverance  can  free  him  from  the 
anxiety  for  his  bare  happiness,  and  only  the  laying  of 
the  centre  of  gravity  in  this  makes  it  possible  to  place 
the  mere  inactivity  in  the  background  and  to  create 
actions  and  energy ;  otherwise  his  particular  nature 
brings  forth  no  fruit  and,  indeed,  his  further  existence 
is  endangered. 

The  content  and  aim  of  the  world  of  religion  are 
universally  not  ascertained  by  the  natural  man,  but 
by  the  Spiritual  Life  in  him.  Difficult  as  all  this 
may  seem,  and  sure  as  it  may  appear  that  the  natural 
ways  of  man  accompany  all  his  work  and  strive  to 
enter  into  this,  yet  through  the  energetic  separation  of 
the  mere-human  and  the  more-than-human   from  one 


192  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

another  a  struggle  for  the  maintenance  and  purity  of 
the  spiritual  substance  is  taken  up,  so  that  we  do  not 
fall  defenceless  to  the  lower  plane.  As  in  culture  on 
the  whole,  so,  too,  in  religion,  the  progress  of  the 
developing  thought  appears  not  anywhere  as  a  mere 
disentanglement  of  an  initial  childish  kind  —  as  a 
destruction  of  an  anthropomorphism — but  as  a  re- 
building proceeded  with  through  the  discovery  of  a 
new  life  and  nature  in  man.  Were  there  no  road 
from  the  denial  to  the  affirmation,  the  work  of  thought 
would  more  and  more  destroy  the  living  content  of 
reality;  indeed,  the  more  energetic  that  work  of 
thought  would  proceed,  the  more  certain  it  would 
reach  a  complete  agnosticism  with  all  its  hollowness. 

But  when,  however,  a  religion  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  leaves  behind  itself  the  mere-human,  it  must 
be  by  itself  of  a  universal  nature.  For  here  it  is 
not  the  aim  of  religion  to  further,  through  the 
introduction  of  a  new  world,  this  or  that  side  of  the 
Spiritual  Life,  but,  before  all  else,  it  is  the  energetic 
longing  to  maintain  the  Spiritual  Life  as  a  Whole, 
and  to  carry  it  through  in  the  midst  of  seemingly 
insuperable  obstacles.  A  religion  which  performs 
this  must  not  consider  itself  as  a  special  province 
of  the  remaining  life,  but  must  encompass  and  per- 
meate the  whole  life.  That  the  Universal  mode  of 
religion  does  not  form  its  culmination,  for,  indeed, 
it  never  leads  to  an  independent  religion,  but  that 
it  far  more  leads  to  a  Characteristic  religion— all 
this  will  be  shown  later ;  but  it  will  be  shown,  too, 
that  this  characteristic  mode  presupposes  the  uni- 
versal mode,  proceeds  out  of  its  experiences,  and  has 
to  unite  itself  with  it. 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION        193 

Spiritual   Life  was  not  in  our  view  a  quality  of 
another  existence ;    it  proved  itself  as  a  life   exist- 
ing by  itself,  which  had  to  develop  all  its  existence 
within  the  life.     The  problem  of  the  truth  of  religion 
receives,   therefore,    its   existence    from   out    of   the 
fact  that  an  absolute  life,  superior   to  the  world,  is 
recognised  as  effective  in  our  sphere.     Through  such 
a  recognition  the  conception  of  the  Godhead  receives 
the  meaning  of  an  Absolute  Spiritual  Life ;  out  of 
this  all  the  remainder  of  life  is  to  be  moulded.     This 
yields   a   decisive   break   with    the    old   methods   of 
proof — methods  that  sought  before  all  else  to  prove 
an  existence  on  the  other  side  of  the  human  circle, 
and    to   set    oneself   in    relationship   with    such    an 
existence.      Through    this    the   intellect    gained    in- 
evitably a  leading  position,  for  by  what  other  means 
could  we  perceive  an  external  existing  reality  ?     On 
the  contrary,  the  revelation  and  the  appropriation  of 
a  turn  towards  the  Life-process  call  upon  the  whole 
man,  and  desire  a  forward  act  of  the  whole  soul ;  all 
this  certainly  enters  into  ideas  and  has  to  be  set  in 
doctrine,   but  even  these  have  to  relate  themselves 
and  be  adjusted  to  the  Life-process,  for  they  cannot 
proceed  as  rigid    dogmas  which  would   govern   the 
very  powers  themselves.      From  this  point  of  view 
there  results  for  religion  a  characteristic  relationship 
of  the  eternal  and  the  temporal,  of  substance  and  its 
forms  ;  now  only  such  arc  valid  as  fundamental  truths 
as  arc  necessary  in   the  vindication  of  the  representa- 
tive Life-process.     The  nature  of  that  which  presents 
itself  in    the   existing   situation   as  an   incontestable 
truth,  and   which   is  measured   as  indispensable  by  a 

standard  of  the  act,  has  to  be  proved  ever  anew  over 

13 


194  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

against  the  changes  of  time,  and  ever  anew  does  it 
become  a  problem.  This  is  so  because  the  historical 
course  of  the  religious  life  of  the  Church  has  the 
tendency  to  extend  further  and  further  the  importance 
of  doctrines,  and,  along  with  this,  to  relax  the  connec- 
tion with  the  living  foundation,  or  to  construct  a 
particular  side  of  the  nature  at  the  expense  of  the 
whole.  Therefore,  the  return  to  the  ground-process 
and  the  elimination  of  all  the  superfluous  as  a  burden 
and  a  hindrance  become  an  ever  necessary  problem ; 
the  great  renewals  of  religion  thus  appear  as  a  simpli- 
fication of  life,  as  a  return  out  of  the  darkness  and 
distraction  of  time  to  an  old  and  eternal  truth. 

Finally,  the  position  of  our  question  contains  also 
a  raising  of  religion  above  the  ramifications  of  the 
psychic  life — above  the  so-called  faculties  of  the  soul ; 
the  question  concerns  itself  with  a  particular  develop- 
ment of  a  Spiritual  Reality  which  certainly  unfolds 
itself  in  thought,  feeling,  and  will,  but  which  proceeds 
not  from  one  or  from  a  combination  of  them.  All 
the  strict  fulfilment  of  religion  in  the  provinces  of 
the  so-called  faculties  of  the  soul  yield  a  formation 
of  the  periphery,  behind  which  remains  unexperienced 
and  undeveloped  a  centre  of  life — the  workshop  of 
original  moulding  and  creativeness.  Let  us  consider 
the  religion  of  the  Church  system  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
which  even  to-day  presents  itself  with  such  an 
obtrusive  air  as  the  one  true  religion.  A  system 
of  doctrines  is  transmitted  to  the  individual,  a 
complex  of  deeds  is  laid  upon  him ;  also  the  entire 
resignation  of  the  subjective  feeling — a  mysticism 
with  its  feeling  organ — can  be  brought  about  through 
doctrines  and  precepts  presented  in  such  a  manner  as 


THE   FACT    OF    UNIVERSAL   RELIGION        195 

not  to  appear  as  a  burden  and  a  constraint.  Thus 
the  whole  man  seems  to  have  been  won,  and  religion 
seems  to  have  become  the  possession  of  his  soul. 
But  is  it  so  in  reality  ?  Or  remains  there  not  un- 
conceived  behind  all  the  expansion  that  which  is 
really  the  fundamental  fact  —  man  as  a  superior 
Whole,  as  a  participator  in  infinity,  as  a  warrior  for 
a  spiritual  self?  This  depth  of  his  nature  has  now 
come  to  a  full  consciousness,  and,  along  with  this, 
it  has  become  clear  that  such  a  fact  alone  grants  him 
secure  stability  against  unutterable  dangers,  tribula- 
tions, and  doubts ;  so  that  he  will  found  his  religion 
upon  this  rock,  weary  throughout  of  the  strife  whether 
intellect,  or  will,  or  feeling,  plays  the  main  part  in  the 
concern.  Here  as  everywhere  in  such  a  fact  we  do 
not  find  anything  new,  for  wherever  religion  was  the 
moving  energy  of  life,  there  stood  behind  it  man  with 
the  whole  of  his  soul.  But  this  ancient  truth  was 
woefully  darkened,  and  prevented  from  coming  to 
full  effect  in  the  common  life  of  humanity  through 
human  conceptions  and  especially  through  the 
Christian  Church.  So  that  it  is  still  something  new 
when  it  is  recognised  fully  in  principle,  and  when  it 
is  able  to  defend  itself  more  energetically  against  its 
own  disfigurement. 

(7)  The  Reality  above  the  World.  -What  brings 
about  the  problem  of  religion  out  of  the  Spiritual 
Life?  The  Spiritual  Life  in  itself  docs  not  produce 
religion  in  an  immediate  manner.  It  is  certain  that 
it  signifies  a  higher  degree  of  reality  than  nature; 
this  degree  can  develop  itself  fully  and  live  out  its 
potencies  in  our  world,  and  can  prepare  all  it  needs 
for  its  aims;    as  things    stand  thus,  we  have  in  the 


196  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

Spiritual  Life  a  new  stage  within  the  world,  but  we 
have  not  as  yet  a  new  world — we  have  won  no  over- 
world  as  yet ;  in  all  this  we  have  reached  an  idealism 
— the  employment  of  this  worn-out  expression  is  used 
here  for  the  purpose  of  brevity — but  we  have  not  as 
yet  acknowledged  religion.  The  question  concerning 
an  over- world  leads  us  first  to  ask  whether  the  New 
which  carries  such  a  fundamental  transformation  with 
itself  knocks  itself  in  pieces  upon  the  hard  obstacles 
of  our  world,  and  thus  is  not  able  to  win  any  secure 
position  against  such  obstacles.  If  things  are  really 
so,  either  the  whole  has  to  be  dropped  as  a  treacherous 
illusion  and  all  activity  to  reach  and  to  maintain  it 
has  to  be  suspended,  or  we  are  to  seek  a  deeper 
ground  in  what  occurs  within  our  circle  and  to  pro- 
tect the  gain  throughout.  But  when  such  a  matter 
of  fact  allows  itself  to  be  proved,  and  when  it  leads 
to  the  recognition  of  an  over- world  absolute  life,  even 
yet  religion  is  not  won.  That  comes  about  when  the 
life  comes  in  contact  not  only  with  its  own  results, 
but  when  we  seize  life  and  appropriate  it  as  a  Whole, 
when  we  pass  from  the  effects  and  set  ourselves  upon 
the  causes,  and  participate,  in  a  form  of  immediacy,  in 
the  absoluteness  of  the  Divine  Life.  But  in  order  to 
reach  such  a  decisive  point  we  must  first  of  all  run 
through  the  earlier  stages  of  life  and  seek  to  show 
that  the  Spiritual  Life  has  no  secure  ground  in  the 
ordinary  near-at-hand  world,  but  meets  the  hardest 
contradictions  in  such  a  world,  and  yet  in  spite  of 
these  contradictions  it  maintains  itself  and  exercises 
energy  in  order  to  take  up  first  of  all  the  decisive 
question. 

(aa)   The  Peril  to  the  Spiritual  Life  from  its  Sur- 


THE   FACT   OF  UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       197 

rounding  World. — How  little  the  Spiritual  Life 
governs  ordinary  immediate  existence  has  been  seen 
from  the  beginning  of  our  investigation ;  it  was  this 
fact  that  made  us  raise  it  so  fundamentally  above  that 
existence.  But  the  inner  energy  presents  yet  in  no 
way  a  triumphant  advance  over  against  the  world. 
The  clash  has  become  sharper  rather  than  milder,  and 
the  contradiction  reaches  deeper  into  the  foundations. 
In  the  meantime  the  Spiritual  Life  brings  forth  from 
within  a  new  kind  of  existence,  and  desires  for  it  new 
forms ;  it  remains  throughout  committed  to  a  funda- 
mental construction  of  the  same  reality  and  yet  it 
longs  to  advance  and  possess  more  of  this  reality, 
and  is  thus  affected  with  a  contradiction  right  through 
its  course  ;  its  energy  and  its  truth  are  endangered  by 
the  greatest  difficulties.  It  signifies  from  within  a 
total-life,  and  yet  this  total-life  is  strewn  over  the 
conformable  individual  nature ;  it  signifies  a  timeless 
truth  and  underlies  wholly  the  power  of  time,  and  yet 
it  is  carried  along  powerless  by  the  ever-restless 
current  of  history  ;  it  must  hold  itself  as  the  main  fact 
-as  the  kernel  of  reality  and  a  full  self-aim — and 
yet  it  is  handled  throughout  as  a  subsidiary  fact,  as 
a  means  to  other  aims.  At  the  same  time,  a  char- 
acteristic nervousness  restrains  the  man  from  confess- 
ing openly  his  inner  apathy  towards  the  Spiritual 
Life;  rather  he  will  and  can  allow  this  appearance 
of  a  "  better  "  to  have  its  place,  so  that  there  originates 
a  general  unveracity  with  all  the  powerlessness  which 
is  inherent  in  such  unveracity,  with  all  the  hollow 
pomp  which  makes  the  man  himself  vexatious.  This 
hard  conflict  between  the  nature  and  the  existence- 
form  of  the  Spiritual    Life  is  the  deepest  ground   of 


198  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

that  hypocrisy  which  runs  through  and  poisons  human 
life  not  only  in  the  union  of  the  life  of  culture,  but 
also  in  the  deepest  recesses  of  the  soul.  Such  a  mere 
semblance  of  character — such  unveracity — is  bound 
to  strike  its  roots  into  all  the  individual  activities  and 
situations :  knowledge,  love,  happiness — all  receive  a 
multi-coloured  hybrid  form  ;  all  these  might  be  and 
could  be  more  than  this ;  everything  through  such  a 
disunion  has  not  the  courage  either  of  a  decisive 
Yea  or  of  a  decisive  Nay.  With  such  halfness  how 
could  a  new  world  arise  or  be  built  up  over  against 
nature  ?  We  have  already  convinced  ourselves  that 
the  examination  of  the  historico-social  life  offers  not 
the  least  hope  for  such  a  new  world  or  the  possibility 
of  altering  essentially  our  position  in  respect  to  the 
Spiritual  Life.  Therefore,  the  whole  movement 
towards  the  Spiritual  Life  is  either  a  great  and  an 
inexplicable  error,  or  there  is  more  behind  it  than 
appears  clear  at  a  glance. 

(bb)  The  Assertion  of  the  Spiritual  Life  over 
against  the  World. — That  in  reality  more  is  imbedded 
behind  the  appearances  is  shown  by  the  fact  of  the 
conflict  itself;  for  this  fact  is  of  a  twofold  kind:  it 
shows  the  hindrance,  but  it  also  shows  that  something 
is  hindered  which  asserts  itself  in  spite  of  all  hindrance. 
If  the  surrounding  world  with  its  unspiritual  nature 
were  the  Whole,  how  could  the  Spiritual  Life  arise 
universally  ?  How  could  it,  if  it  is  no  more  than  a  mere 
appearance,  exercise  so  much  more  power  now  it  has 
recognised  the  fact  than  it  exercised  previously  ? 
Whence  even  the  striving  after  appearance,  after 
hypocrisy,  if  all  resolves  itself  into  a  phantom  ?  There 
must  be  thus  something  superior  in  the  very  truth 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION        199 

which  works  in  our  potency  and  in  the  whole  of  its 
province.  That  this  is  so  is  illumined  yet  clearer 
by  the  fact  that  the  Spiritual  Life,  with  all  its  hin- 
drances and  restraints  in  the  environing  world,  does 
not  simply  conform  to  this  world,  but  asserts  itself 
over  against  it  and  holds  fast  its  own  aims.  It  does 
this  in  the  directions  we  shall  now  point  out. 

1.  In  the  midst  of  all  distractions,  one  thing  issues 
out  of  the  kingdom  of  distractions — an  inconceivable 
movement  towards  unity.  Individuals,  peoples,  and 
epochs  believe  in  the  possibility  of  mutual  under- 
standing in  the  midst  of  all  disintegrations ;  all 
assertion  of  a  spiritual  kind  is  valid  not  only  for  the 
individual  or  for  a  special  circle,  but  for  all ;  also  the 
particular  branches  of  the  work  of  reason  can  well 
diverge  for  a  while  but  not  for  any  length  of  time, 
and  finally  all  the  manifold  of  effort  must  flow  into 
an  encompassing  truth,  for  all  particularity  becomes 
rigid  and  lifeless  when  severed  from  such  a  unity. 
The  striving  towards  unity  in  the  midst  of  all 
distractions  is  that  which  particularly  rouses  human 
life,  which  sets  it  in  motion,  which  entangles  it  in 
unutterable  strife,  but  which  proves  itself  a  mighty 
power  in  the  midst  of  all.  Whence  else  comes  the 
struggle  than  from  thence — that  each  shall  become 
the  Whole  the  governing,  the  universally  valid,  and 
that  each  tends  to  lose  its  value  if  it  tolerates  another 
to  lie  untouched  by  its  side?  Such  strenuous  and 
even  passionate  Striving  is  an  irrefragable  testimony 
of  ;i  power  superior  to  the  dispersion  of  the  parts 
and  also  to  the  whole  environing  order  of  things. 

2.  However    the    content    and    the    value    of    the 
Spiritual    Life  may  he  made  by  man  to  lit  in  with  his 


200  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

aims,  yet  they  withstand  a  complete  adjustment  into 
the  mere-human  situation,  and  exercise  from  their 
side  a  counter-effect  to  that   situation.     No  less  an 
authority   than    Kant   explained    it   as   "highly   ob- 
jectionable  that   the  laws  concerning  what  1  ought 
to  do  can  be   drawn   from   or   confined   to  what   is 
merely  done."     How  does  such  a  superiority  of  the 
norm  of  all  action  justify  itself  above  the  position  of 
man  if  there  dwells  not  in  his  whole  nature  such  a 
superior   arrangement  ?     This  arrangement  in  man's 
nature  appears  in  the  total-movement  of  history,  first 
of  all,  as  a  power  of  a  directive  and  unravelling  kind. 
Men  and  times  draw  the  Spiritual  Life  into  them- 
selves and  lower  it  as  a  means  for  their  aims ;  they 
give  it  a  moulding  which  corresponds  to  their  fleeting 
wishes.     Thus   they   may   carve    and    bend   it,    and 
appear  themselves  as  seeming  lords  of  things.     But 
such  a  method  has  always  a  measuring  rod  brought 
to  bear  on  it ;  sooner  or  later  a  counter-effect  makes 
its  presence  felt  and  then  the  merely  human  fashion 
lives  itself  out,  its  emptiness  and  meanness  come  to 
light,  and  the  final  decomposition   is  not   far  away. 
Thus  we  find  an  incessant   return   to   the    Spiritual 
Life  from  the  human  perversion  of  it — a  return  to 
man's   own   nature ;   and    consequently  an  energetic 
return  to  the  demands  and  dependence  of  man. 

This  is  an  effect  of  a  more  negative  kind,  but 
the  Spiritual  Life  declares  its  ability  also  positively 
within  the  human  province  through  an  incessant 
exertion  to  move  outside  the  "  given "  situation, 
through  a  tracing  out  and  a  holding  forth  of  ideals, 
through  a  longing  after  a  more  complete  happiness 
and  a  more  complete  truth.     Why  is  not  man  satisfied 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL  RELIGION       201 

with  the  relativity  which  clings  so  fast  to  his 
existence  ?  Why  lias  he  a  longing  for  the  Absolute 
in  opposition  to  such  relativity,  and  through  this 
plunges  himself  into  the  most  difficult  sorrows  and 
restlessness  ?  This  has  happened  not  only  in  special 
situations  of  individuals,  but  in  the  total  ascent  of 
culture  ;  indeed,  the  upward  march  of  culture  would 
have  been  impossible  without  a  striving  of  man  from 
a  level  above  his  "  given "  position  and  even  above 
himself.  Was  not  subjective  satisfaction  more 
easily  reached  by  him  in  the  semi-animal  stages  of 
his  existence  than  in  culture  with  all  its  toils  and 
tangles,  and  does  the  progress  of  culture  with  all  its 
tools  make  him  happier  in  the  mere  human  sense  ? 
What  else  can  compel  him  to  step  into  this  perilous 
track  of  culture  but  the  necessity  of  his  own  nature 
which,  at  the  same  time,  reveals  to  him  the  presence 
of  a  new  order  of  things  ? 

3.  Then  Spiritual  Life  asserts  itself  not  only 
within  the  human  circle,  but  it  exhibits  in  the  midst 
of  all  obstacles  a  capacity  to  draw  the  lower  to 
itself,  it  exhibits  the  energy  to  overcome  the  lower 
and  the  power  to  ennoble  it  through  a  higher.  There 
proceeds  through  our  life  a  movement  from  the 
outward  to  the  inward,  from  the  natural  to  the 
spiritual.  Any  spiritual  stimulation  which  conies  to 
us  may  seem  in  the  first  instance  to  proceed  and  to 
work  on  us  from  without,  and  may  thus  appear  as  a 
mere  constraint  which  can  only  be  uncoupled  by 
counter-effects.  But  what  first  of  all  seems  to  work 
on  man  more  than  in  him  begins  soon  to  strike  its 
roots  within  him,  allows  itself  to  be  gripped  as  one's 
own   fact  and   to  he    transformed   into    free  activity. 


202  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

Without  such  a  growth  of  one's  own  life,  without 
such  an  inverted  order  of  the  direction  of  the  move- 
ment, all  education  of  humanity  remains  a  dead 
training,  and  all  moral  instruction  remains  a  mere 
appearance ;  the  spark  of  the  inner  life  would  never 
be  awakened  were  such  a  life  not  imbedded  in  man's 
very  nature,  and  did  it  not  enable  him  to  carry 
further  his  very  life  in  the  direction  of  his  goal.  So 
that  it  is  not  through  the  mere  working  of  psychical 
mechanism,  which  could  never  awaken  man  and 
which  could  never  originate  an  inner  unity  and  an 
active  disposition,  that  the  progress  from  custom  to 
morality,  from  external  relationship  to  inner  harmony, 
from  a  collection  of  self-interests  to  a  union  of 
character,  explains  itself  and  reveals  itself  as  a 
phenomenon  of  the  inwardness  of  human  life  and 
existence.  Through  this  the  effort  is  raised  beyond 
its  original  motive,  and  the  man  is  led  out  to  a 
region  beyond  himself.  What  appeared  to  him  pre- 
viously as  mere  means  for  his  egotistic  aims,  begins 
now,  through  his  own  character,  to  draw  him  and  set 
him  in  motion ;  this  is  more  and  more  taken  into 
his  own  life  and  raises  his  life.  The  necessities  of 
existence  aim  at  carrying  man  to  his  work  ;  and  how 
many  inward  movements  and  how  many  blessings 
proceed  from  such  aims !  But  all  this  is  to  be 
understood  only  under  an  hypothesis  of  an  active 
presence  of  an  elevated  Spiritual  Life  within  the 
human  circle. 

What  we  have  already  considered  in  connection 
with  these  three  points  and  directions  is  a  develop- 
ment of  the  one  and  same  ground-fact  which  testifies 
in    a  corporate  manner    that  a  Spiritual   Life  works 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       203 

in  us,  and  which  does  not  explain  itself  out  of 
the  relations,  but  which  points  to  a  higher  order  of 
existence  than  the  world-order  which  surrounds  us. 
With  all  this  is  won  only  an  hypothesis  of  religion, 
and  not  religion  itself.  Though  the  consciousness 
of  the  effect  of  a  higher  order  of  things  in  the 
midst  of  our  circle  of  experience  is  able  to  give  a 
true  assurance,  and  to  strengthen  the  faith  in  some 
kind  of  conquest  of  the  good,  still  the  power  remains 
a  dark  secret,  and  an  inner  relationship  to  it  is  not 
yet  given.  It  is  only  with  this  latter  inward  re- 
lationship that  religion  originates.  Let  us  therefore 
see  if  the  experience  of  life  shows  an  entrance  hither. 
(cc)  The  Revelation  of  an  Absolute  Spiritual  Life 
in  our  World. — We  need  not  open  any  laborious  and 
lengthy  investigation  in  order  to  prove  that  a 
Spiritual  Life  superior  to  the  world  not  only  touches 
us  with  its  effects,  but  that  it  is  also  present  in  us 
as  cause  with  all  the  fulness  of  its  energy.  It  is 
revealed  to  us  as  a  great  fact  that  a  Spiritual  Life  can 
rise  up  as  our  own  life :  and  this  actually  happens. 
The  significance  of  this  fact  can  be  judged  fully  after 
we  have  recognised  that  a  total-life  presents  itself  in 
the  Spiritual  Life,  and  that  in  this  total-life  a  new 
degree  of  reality  arises,  and  an  inverted  order  of  the 
world-process  takes  place;  such  a  turn  could  not 
proceed  out  of  the  potency  of  the  individual  elements 
of  life,  but  has  to  proceed  out  of  the  energy  of  the 
Whole.  Therefore,  (his  Whole  must  be,  in  a  form 
of  immediacy,  present  in  us,  and,  also,  the  great  change- 
shall  ensue  as  a  gain  of  our  own  life.  Now,  the  life 
of  the  spirit  docs  not  develop  itself  in  us  merely  in 
isolated  achievements  or   from  the  external  ;  we  have 


20*  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

already  seen  how  it  returned  to  itself  from  each 
performance  and  constructed  for  itself  a  nucleus 
which  became  the  carrier  of  all  activity,  for  thus  alone 
could  the  autonomous  life  develop  itself.  Whatever 
the  personality  and  the  spiritual  individuality  may 
receive  on  the  mere-human  and  natural  planes  could 
not  arise  and  bring  forth  any  kind  of  movement  unless 
there  worked  on  such  planes  some  kind  of  autonomous 
and  original  life. 

The  great  change  of  life  from  a  web  of  relations  to 
the  founding  of  a  total-life  in  itself,  and  the  turn  of 
reality  to  its  own  depth — all  this  is  a  fact  which  does 
not  march  forward  in  front  of  us,  and  it  could  not  arise 
in  us  at  all  had  it  not  gone  forth  out  of  us  and  had  we 
not  become  along  with  it  active  co-carriers  of  reality. 
The  dawning  of  a  new  world  in  the  midst  of  our 
province,  our  entering  into  an  inward  revolution  of 
human  existence — this  is  the  great  miracle  in  which 
the  presence  of  a  new  world  manifests  itself  with 
great  clearness.  He  who  does  not  find  the  miracle 
here  is  not  likely  to  find  it  anywhere  else,  and  will 
seek  in  vain  for  it  in  the  "  far,  far  away,"  for  the 
words  of  Paracelsus  hold  valid  in  this  respect : 
"  You  are  long-sighted,  you  see  in  the  distance,  but 
you  do  not  see  close  at  hand." 

That  the  fact  of  an  autonomous  life  in  our  own 
circle  holds  valid  as  the  decisive  proof  of  the  presence 
of  a  Divine  existence  is  contradicted  only  by  the 
external  clothing  of  the  idea.  "  Autonomous,"  one 
may  say,  and  so  says  one  with  the  Middle  Ages  mode 
of  thought,  is  the  denial  of  all  dependence,  of  all 
tying  to  another  will  ;  religion,  however,  desires 
unconditional    dependence,    obedience,    submission ; 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       205 

thus  the  two  are  complete  opposites.  But  they  re- 
main opposites  only  so  long  as  God  and  man,  in  a 
childish  anthropomorphic  manner,  are  set  against  one 
another  as  two  isolated  natures  that  are  set  in  relation 
from  the  outside,  and  thus  the  one  side  seems  to  take 
what  is  given  by  the  other  side.  We  could  think 
but  little  of  man  if  we  allowed  everything  to  come  in 
to  him  from  the  outside,  if  we  denied  him  all  inner 
movement  towards  the  summits  of  religion.  And, 
too,  the  new  world  would  be  cut  off  entirely  from 
our  world  and,  through  the  inaccessibleness,  the 
"  beyond  "  would  vanish. 

But  it  is  quite  otherwise  when  the  autonomy,  now 
possessing  more  inward  and  less  anthropomorphic 
modes  of  thought,  appears  not  as  something  contra- 
dictory to  the  Whole  but  as  an  independent  "  becom- 
ing "  out  of  the  energy  and  presence  of  the  Whole, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  as  an  essentially  new  grade  of 
life  ;  then  this  independent  life  must  separate  itself 
most  pointedly  from  all  self-willed  selfishness  and 
from  all  stubborn  self-assertion.  It  is  certainly  a 
mystery  how  the  highest  self-activity  signifies  the 
immediate  extinction  of  all  mere  egoism  and  signifies, 
too,  a  life  out  of  Infinity.  But  he  who  places  this 
mystery  on  one  side  must  either  cast  away  all 
religion  or  shape  it  in  a  purely  external  form  of  the 
understanding. 

Through  the  inward  presentation  of  the  total 
problem  the  thought  of  an  over-world  signifies  much 
more  than  a  flight  to  a  bare  "beyond."  True,  there 
results  a  separation  a  division  of  reality — for  with- 
out this  religion  is  not  possible.  Hut  this  does  not 
imply  that  a  kl  beyond"  is  to  be  thought  of  as  a  kind 


206  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

of  fixed  and  inviolable  foundation  of  our  existence 
entirely  over  against  the  present  world — a  "  beyond  " 
that  has  to  be  adjusted  through  special  helps;  but 
it  does  imply  a  "  beyond "  in  the  sense  that  the 
existing  Spiritual  Life  relegates  the  present  world 
to  a  secondary  place.  Such  a  Spiritual  Life  becomes 
the  fixed  norm  for  all  life,  and  in  its  renewal  it 
becomes  not  some  kind  of  a  More  of  an  already 
existing  life,  but  in  it,  first  and  foremost,  a  really 
existing  and  truthful  life  is  won. 

Thus,  religion  was  everywhere  found  where  it 
possessed  this  thorough  originality,  and  its  own 
truth  was  the  most  certain  of  all  things — a  truth 
in  which  all  else  found  its  fixed  duration.  Thus 
an  Augustine  took  flight  out  of  the  hardest  shocks 
of  human  life  to  the  immanent  Divine  presence  in 
his  own  soul — to  that  which  first  of  all  disengaged 
itself  from  the  threatening  overthrow  of  life,  to  that 
which  won  him  for  himself.  So  that  the  Middle 
Ages  conceived  this  Divine  Order  as  the  Fatherland 
(patria),  and  ventured  to  say  that  we  know  God 
better  than  the  creature  (Dcus  notior  creatura). 

After  all  this  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the 
nature  of  religion.  Religion  rests  on  the  presence 
of  a  Divine  Life  in  man ;  it  unfolds  itself  through 
the  seizure  of  this  Life  as  one's  own  nature.  Religion, 
too,  subsists  in  the  fact  that  man  in  the  inmost 
foundation  of  his  own  being  is  raised  into  the  Divine 
Life,  and  participates  in  the  Divine  Nature. 
Christianity  was  right  when  it  found  the  kernel 
of  religion  in  the  union  of  the  natures  of  the  human 
and  the  Divine,  and  even  the  unfortunate  dogmatic 
representation  of  the   two   natures   in    Christ   could 


THE   FACT   OF  UNIVERSAL   RELIGION        207 

not  destroy  the  transforming  and   elevating   energy 
of  this  truth. 

But  the  full  vivification  of  the  Divine  in  man  and 
the  gaining  of  a  new  plane  of  life  can  never  happen 
without  a  recognition  and  an  assimilation  on  the 
side  of  man.  Religion  can  never  originate  unless  the 
Divine  enters  into  the  conviction  of  man,  unless  the 
whole  of  his  soul  turns  towards  the  new  world.  In 
this  sphere  there  is  no  place  for  any  mechanical 
instillation,  and  there  is  no  growth  possible  without 
our  own  accommodating  spirit.  Hence  religions 
constantly  long  so  ardently  for  the  consent  and 
repentance  of  man ;  the  nobility  of  the  soul  and 
its  membership  with  God  must  be  acknowledged 
in  order  to  be  able  to  experience  His  Divine  Energy. 
For  "  what  would  it  avail  a  man  if  he  were  king  and 
knew  it  not"  (Eckhart).  It  will  appear  later  in 
our  treatment  in  a  fuller  manner  that  religions  could 
not  consider  human  capacity  as  the  measurement 
of  the  activity  of  the  Divine,  but  that  to  all  religions, 
in  their  best  conclusions,  human  achievement  was 
considered  as  the  highest  proof  of  grace. 

It  is  not  possible  that  so  much  should  lie  imbedded 
in  such  a  recognition  did  it  not  signify  more  than 
a  passive  approval  or  a  setting  of  act  and  work. 
[f  things  did  not  mean  more  for  our  life,  there  is  not 
much  more  won  than  a  beautiful  sonorous  etiquette. 
In  order  to  bring  forth  a  genuine  renewal,  the 
recognition  of  the  Divine  must  transpose  itself  into 
an  energetic  selection  and  rejection  of  the  elements 
which  present  themselves  in  this  world.  The  great- 
ness of  this  turn  of  man  consists  in  that  the  Spiritual 
Life  is  led  through  its  freedom  from  the  entanglement 


208  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

and  anxiety  of  the  world-situation  to  a  pure  distinct- 
ness of  its  own  nature  and  to  a  full  self-reliance. 
Thus,  an  energetic  distinction  between  essential  and 
non-essential  becomes  possible,  and  through  such 
an  analysis  the  life  is  powerfully  roused  and  set  in 
motion.  Religion  throughout  is  not  mere  contem- 
plation with  its  corresponding  characteristics,  but, 
after  the  nature  of  its  nucleus,  is  the  highest  activity, 
the  separation  of  the  existing  chaos,  the  concentration 
of  the  Spiritual  Life  by  itself,  and  the  setting  forth 
of  such  a  Spiritual  Life  against  all  the  alien  elements 
which  threaten  to  overwhelm  it. 

2.   The  Content  of  Religion 

(a)  The  Idea  of  God, — The  discussion  of  the  idea 
of  God  belongs  to  the  summit  of  our  investigation. 
But  the  discussion  of  the  subject  is  to  be  considered 
not  as  if  the  idea  of  God  had  already  been  discovered 
in  advance  at  a  certain  stage  in  the  evolution  of 
religion,  and  had  driven  forward  all  further  develop- 
ment out  of  itself;  but  on  the  contrary,  our  in- 
vestigation considers  the  idea  of  God  as  that  which 
brings  to  expression  above  all  else  the  characteristic 
properties  of  religion,  and  which  makes  the  main 
direction  of  the  striving  of  religion  palpable.  There- 
fore, one  fought  in  reality  for  the  content  of  religion 
when  one  fought  for  the  conception  of  God,  and  it 
is  in  the  recognition  of  this  fact  that  every  conception 
of  religion  has  to  prove  itself. 

The  pathway  which  leads  to  the  conception  of  God 
leads  us  at  the  same  time  to  the  content  which  the 
conception  can  have  for  us.  It  signifies  to  us  nothing 
other  than  an  Absolute  Spiritual  Life  in  its  grandeur 


THE    FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       209 

above  all  the  limitations  of  man  and  the  world  of 
experience — -a  Spiritual  Life  that  has  attained  to  a 
complete  subsistence  in  itself,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
to  an  encompassing  of  all  reality. 

Before  we  view  what  such  a  foundation  and  develop- 
ment of  the  idea  of  God,  in  and  by  the  Spiritual  Life, 
yields  as  to  content,  we  must  discuss  how  this  way 
of  taking  the  idea  contrasts  with  other  ways,  and 
especially  how  it  is  qualified  to  overcome  an  antithesis, 
which,  beyond  mere  conceptions,  disunites  and  en- 
dangers the  religious  life  itself.  This  antithesis  is 
that  of  anthropomorphism  and  of  ontological  specula- 
tion. The  former  has  endeavoured  to  keep  the  idea 
of  God  as  near  as  possible  to  man ;  the  latter  has 
endeavoured  to  lift  the  idea  as  high  and  far  above 
man  as  possible.  Anthropomorphism  controls  the 
ordinary  conception  of  religion  from  remote  anti- 
quity. Or  can  we  deny  that  man  is  here  wont  to 
project  into  the  universe  a  somewhat  magnified 
and  ennobled  replica  of  himself,  and  to  deal  with 
the  Deity  as  with  a  man-like  being  ?  The  insuffi- 
ciency of  this  was  not  only  brought  up  against,  but 
it  was  also  fully  felt  within,  religion's  own  circle. 
Hence  the  effort  to  drive  out  such  a  human  notion, 
and  this  elimination  seemed  to  be  most  thoroughly 
effected  by  ontological  speculation  which  excluded 
each  and  nil  closer  determination  of  the  Godhead  as 
illegitimate,  and  retained  as  valid  for  the  nature  of 
the  Godhead  only  Being  without  any  qualities  and 
above  all  concepts.  This  worked  with  special  attrac- 
tive energy  on  philosophic  minds,  who  then  evolved 
a    mode    of   esoteric    religion    which     seemed    to    lie 

14 


210  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

heaven-wide  from  all  the  smallness  and  selfishness 
of  man.  But  with  such  a  loosening  of  its  bonds 
with  man,  religion  threatened  to  forfeit  not  only  all 
clear  qualities  of  the  Godhead  but  also  all  animated 
energy  ;  it  passed  more  and  more  into  a  passive  con- 
templation, and,  by  this,  into  a  direct  counterpart 
of  the  anthropomorphic  religion  which  accomplishes 
too  little  in  the  inward  transformation  of  man,  and 
which  serves  too  directly  his  desire  for  mere 
happiness. 

With   such   a   divergence   the   two   ways    cannot 
possibly   be   directly   united   and   conjoined,   as   the 
esoteric    and    exoteric    forms    of    religion,    as    has 
happened  in  the  main  in  the  historical  religions  and 
especially  in  Christianity.     In  reality  the  Christianity 
of  the  Church  has  not  one  but  two  conceptions  of 
God — one  anthropomorphic  and  the  other  ontologic- 
speculative  ;  they  contain  different  forms  of  religion, 
so   that  any  juxtaposition  of  the  two  forms  cannot 
possibly  be  a  solution  of  the  problem,  but  can  only 
represent   a  tolerable   compromise  which  insistently 
proclaims   the   two    requirements    of  every   concept 
of  God   and   of    all   religion.       Anthropomorphism 
contends   rightly   that   religion,    in    order    to    be   a 
power  of  life  and  not  a  mere  view  of  the  universe, 
must   remain   close   to    man   and    must    strengthen 
him  in    himself.     How   little   ontology   is   able   out 
of  its  own  power  to  do  this,  and  how  little  in  its 
speculations  it  leads  to  religion — all  this  would   be 
quite   evident   if  it   were   not    wont,    unnoticed,   to 
complete   itself  from    a   more    positive   kind   of  re- 
ligion, and    to    substitute    mere    empty  conceptions 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION        211 

for  true  forms,  as  mysticism  evidently  shows.  On 
the  other  hand,  ontology  possesses  a  right  in  the 
undertaking  because  it  lifts  religion  out  of  the  circle 
of  presentations,  and  especially  out  of  the  circle  of 
the  interests  of  the  mere  individual ;  for  through  this, 
ontology  really  forms  something  new  out  of  man, 
and  not  merely  strengthens  him  further  in  his  small- 
ness  and  narrowness. 

Now,  the  two  claims  —  the  psychic  nearness  of 
religion  and  its  liberation  from  the  mere-human — 
become  united  with  the  promulgation  of  the  Spiritual 
Life.  For  this  deals  not  only  with  the  preservation 
of  the  merely  human  but  with  its  spiritual  substance, 
and  it  prohibits  all  anchorage  in  any  merely  human 
province  and  all  binding  of  the  conception  of  God 
in  merely  human  conceptions.  But  when,  at  the 
same  time,  the  truth  stands  firm  that  the  Spiritual 
Life  has  to  win  our  true  self — the  depth  of  our  own 
nature  -then  religion,  with  all  its  elevation  beyond 
the  merely  human,  preserves  a  nearness  of  soul ;  and, 
too,  the  conception  of  God  can  gain  a  positive  con- 
tent without  falling  into  anthropomorphism.  All 
this  will  happen  through  the  fundamental  conception 
that  man  himself  signifies  no  bare  isolated  existence, 
but  is  moored  upon  Infinity,  and  only  in  the  realisa- 
tion of  this  fact  is  he  able  to  discover  his  own  definite 
nature.  Also,  the  highest  human  conception  of  de- 
signating the  Absolute  Nature  will  not  suffice,  for  a 
human  colouring  always  clings  to  the  conception  of 
spiritual  greatness.  But  these  conceptions,  through 
the  annulment  of  the  sharp  opposites,  can  well  serve 
,is  pathways  and  symbols,  and,  in  spite  of  all  their 
insufficiency,  can  present  us  with  true  contents  of  life. 


212  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

From  such  a  reflection  on  these  things  the  effort 
concerning  the  personality  of  God  is  to  be  judged — a 
fact  which  reaches  back  to  antiquity.  Much  is  here 
a  strife  over  words.  In  the  expression  "  personality  " 
differences  with  the  most  striking  resemblances  lie 
imbedded :  one  side  thinks,  in  connection  with  the 
expression,  of  the  individual  human  nature  with  its 
opposition  to  other  natures  and  with  its  natural 
limits ;  another  thinks  of  the  "  becoming "  inde- 
pendence and  self-comprehension  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  in  man.  But  the  whole  of  the  difference  is 
not  a  strife  over  words.  The  direct  denial  of  a 
personality  of  God  aims  at  the  denial  of  a  superiority 
against  the  world-process,  aims  at  bringing  about  a 
pantheistic  melting  of  the  Absolute  Life  in  the  world. 
An  unconditional  affirmation,  on  the  other  hand, 
works  in  the  direction  of  humanising  and  pulling 
down.  It  becomes  necessary,  then,  for  a  further  de- 
velopment of  the  Spiritual  Life  to  secure  sufficiently 
its  ground  against  the  flow  of  all  into  merely  human 
qualities  and  relations  ;  and  it  is  not  easy  to  overcome 
this  danger  on  account  of  the  rooted  usage  of  terms. 
Therefore,  it  may  be  recommended  as  a  scientific  ex- 
pression of  the  fact,  not  to  transplant  the  expression 
"  personality  "  to  the  Absolute  Life,  or,  at  the  most, 
not  to  employ  it  as  more  than  a  symbol.  Indeed, 
one  may  ask.  in  order  to  avoid  the  dangers  of  the 
conception  of  personality,  whether  religion  of  a 
universal  kind  has  not  to  turn  from  the  expression 
"  God  "  to  that  of  "  Godhead."  Whether  the  passage 
from  the  Universal  mode  of  religion  to  the  Charac- 
teristic mode  constitutes  such  a  turning,  and  at  the 
same  time  gives  a  better  right  to  the  conception  of 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION        213 

personality,  can  be  shown  only  by  further  develop- 
ments and  experiences. 

These  investigations  include  also  the  decision  con- 
cerning the  position  of  mysticism.  If  the  Spiritual 
Life  is,  first  of  all,  a  total-life,  then  no  true  departure 
to  the  religious  province  can  take  place  without  a 
liberation  from  narrow  accuracy,  without  a  counter- 
effect  to  the  merely  human,  and  without  the  setting  of 
the  life  in  a  total-life.  That  mysticism  sets  this 
forth,  is  its  great  service  ;  indeed,  all  the  moulding  of 
religion  fails  unless  it  takes  an  element  of  mysticism 
—the  living  soul — into  itself.  But  mysticism  fails 
because  it  turns  this  necessary  portion  of  religion  into 
the  sole  content.  To  it  religion  is  nothing  other  than 
an  absorption  into  the  infinite  and  eternal  Being — an 
extinguishing  of  all  particularity,  and  the  gaining  of 
a  complete  calm  through  the  suspension  of  all  the 
wear  and  tear  of  life.  Thus  even  here  the  Nay 
and  not  the  Yea  remains  in  the  ascendant ;  and 
this  will  far  more  lower  the  natural  difficulties  of  life 
than  wring  from  them  a  new  power  superior  to 
them  ;  and  consequently  the  life  fails  to  find  an  exit 
out  of  the  sphere  of  irritation  and  of  its  ordinary  pitch 
to  a  region  of  active  work  and  to  a  fundamental 
transformation  of  reality.  Mysticism,  however,  holds 
valid  as  a  weighty  and  indispensable  motive  of  religion, 
but  it  does  not  constitute  the  whole  of  religion. 
We  cannot  dispense  with  it,  but  dare  not  terminate 
with  it. 

If  we  now  turn  towards  the  demarcations  and 
securities,  it  is  clear  that  such  can  never  result  out  of 
vague  reflection  but  out  of  the  experiences  of  the 
Spiritual    Life.      All    speculative    gnosticism    fades 


214  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

where  the  Life-process  constitutes  the  point  of  depar- 
ture and  also  the  boundary  of  all  reflection.  The 
idea  of  God  signifies  to  us  nothing  other  than  an 
Absolute  Spiritual  Life — a  Life  freed  from  the  limits 
and  entanglements  of  our  experience,  a  Life  in 
possession  of  a  complete  existence  for  itself,  and 
constituting  the  substance  of  reality.  It  is  thus 
alone  that  the  idea  of  God  can  possess  a  content, 
that  the  characteristics  of  the  Spiritual  Life  can  long 
for  a  purer  formation,  and  that  these  characteristics, 
uniting  among  one  another  what  appeared  previously 
as  merely  external  qualities,  can  now  set  these  very 
qualities  in  the  nature  itself.  Through  such  a  turn 
from  effects  to  causes,  from  surface  to  foundation,  the 
unity  of  the  total-life  raises  itself  to  a  more  complete 
clearness ;  the  timelessness  of  all  spiritual  content 
leads  to  the  idea  of  a  Divine  Order  ;  the  truthful  and 
the  worthful  now  desire  a  full  union,  and  the  good 
becomes  the  governing  power  of  all  life.  Thus  the 
Spiritual  Life,  through  such  an  elevation  to  the 
Absolute,  reaches  a  full  development  of  its  own 
nature,  and  obtains,  at  the  same  time,  an  incompar- 
ably greater  power  and  superiority  over  against  the 
merely  human  powers. 

(j3)  Godhead  and  the  World. — In  connection  with 
the  problem  of  the  Godhead  and  the  world,  two 
directions  have  struggled  for  prominence,  each  of 
which  is  able  to  show  a  good  reason  for  itself.  On 
the  one  side,  it  appears  necessary  before  all  else  to 
distinguish  clearly  the  Godhead  from  the  world,  and 
to  raise  such  far  above  the  world  ;  for  it  is  only  thus 
we  are  able  to  preserve  the  purity  of  the  conception, 
and  only  thus  does  an  elevating  effect  seem  to  pro- 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       215 

ceed  from  such  a  conception.  On  the  other  side,  the 
Godhead  is  drawn  as  far  as  possible  deep  into  the 
world,  and  as  far  as  possible  the  particular  nature  of 
the  Divine  is  bound  with  the  particular  nature  of 
things,  for  it  is  only  thus  we  seem  able  to  reach  a 
living  present  consciousness  and  lasting  influences 
from  the  world. 

"  What  kind  of  nature  would  God  have,  had  He  no  other  call 
Than  from  outside  to  move  the  world  and  merely  circling 

all! 
Far  more  is  He  the  inner  life  of  all  that  seems  and  is, 
In  Him  is  Nature  born  and  bred,  and  He  in  Nature  lives.-''' 

Thus  we  obtain  the  opposition  of  transcendence 
and  immanence,  of  dualism  and  monism,  of  super- 
naturalism  and  pantheism.  The  terms  announce  but 
little,  and  the  mutual  charges  of  heresy  are  weari- 
some. That  the  matter  is  not  so  simple  as  the 
partisans  imagine  on  the  one  side  or  the  other, 
appears  clear  from  the  fact  that  whole  epochs  have 
stood  under  the  influence,  now  of  one,  now  of  the 
other :  waning  antiquity  could  not,  on  account  of  a 
feeling  of  weariness,  separate  wide  enough  the  Divine 
and  the  world  ;  the  rising  modern  times,  with  its 
fresh  strain  of  life,  could  not  sufficiently  unite  both. 
Indeed,  soon  the  impression  of  limits  and  entangle- 
ments predominated  ;  later  the  impression  of  energy 
and  beauty  won  the  upper  hand.  Alternate  aspects 
of  inability  and  ability  drew  the  character  hither  and 
thither.  We  have  to  see  if  the  development  of 
religion  through  the  Spiritual  Life  is  able  to  raise 
man  above  the  vacillations  of  times  and  of  dis- 
positions. 

The  starting-point  of  the  Spiritual  Life  evidently 


216  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

prohibits  such  a  crass  dualism  as  governs  the  ordinary 
mind.  For  the  Spiritual  Life  was  no  separate 
domain  which  forced  open  an  entrance  to  alien  things, 
but  it  proved  itself  to  us  as  the  characteristic  depth 
of  reality,  and  as  the  turn  of  life  to  its  own  nature. 
Therefore,  if  the  conception  of  the  Godhead  develops 
out  of  the  conception  of  the  Spiritual  Life,  the  God- 
head must  be  most  intimately  connected  with  the 
nature  of  things  ;  and  this  nature  of  things  must  be 
grounded  and  founded  in  the  Godhead,  and,  finally, 
the  Godhead  must  be  all  in  all.  The  positive 
religions  could  not  withhold  such  a  conviction,  and 
religion  dare  not  deprive  itself  of  the  experience  of 
the  great  apostle  who  felt  that  "in  Him  we  live, 
and  move,  and  have  our  being,"  and  that  "  we  are 
also  His  offspring." 

When  dualism  misconstrues  this,  it  isolates  the 
Godhead  to  the  uttermost,  and  thus  loses  all  power 
to  give  the  Godhead  a  content ;  inevitably  a  partially 
transfigured  mirror-image  of  the  reality  nearest  at 
hand  is  set  up  for  a  new  world.  The  projection  of  this 
"  here  and  now  "  to  a  "  beyond  " — this  reduplication 
of  the  world — must,  however,  create  a  contradiction 
especially  in  the  province  of  religion,  for  with  such 
a  method  there  results  too  little  inward  trans- 
formation ;  the  natural  impulses  are  not  sufficiently 
broken ;  the  bitter  Nay  fails  in  religion,  and  without 
such  a  Nay  the  Yea  gains  no  energy  and  depth. 
The  same  thing  happens  in  connection  with  the 
customary  hopes  of  immortality,  which  conceive  of 
man  as  being  immortal  even  in  his  body  and  all  its 
natural  limitations,  and  which  are  carried  with  all 
their  worldly  qualities  into  infinity.     Indeed,  is  there 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       217 

not  a  religious  disposition  conceivable  which  has  as 
its  motive  some  kind  of  conservation  of  the  "dear 
self,"  and  which  finds  the  hindrances  against  such  a 
conservation  unbearable  ? 

Thus,  not  only  all  philosophic  thought,  but  also 
definite  religion  itself,  withstand  such  a  dualism  ;  but, 
again,  a  renunciation  of  it  glides  easily  into  pantheism. 
But  an  exclusive  and  complete  pantheism,  however, 
is  securely  obviated  through  a  development  of  religion 
out  of  the  Life-process.  To  such  a  pantheism  our 
world  in  the  whole  of  its  existence  becomes  a 
phenomenon,  a  development,  an  emanation,  or,  as  the 
usual  wording  has  it,  an  absolute  essence.  All 
differentiation  of  things  appears  to  such  a  line  of 
thought  as  a  weakness  and  an  error  of  the  human 
mode  of  thinking  ;  there  is,  to  such  a  view,  only  one 
particular  reality,  only  one  particular  life.  The 
government  of  God  according  to  this  theory  falls 
fully  in  unison  with  the  characteristic  effects  of  the 
things,  and  the  unity  spreads  itself  over  the  whole 
multiplicity.  Such  a  course  of  thought  has  the 
tendency  to  win  man  to  its  side,  especially  when  the 
consciousness  of  his  energy  stirs  within  him,  and 
when  his  eyes  are  opened  to  the  fulness  of  life  and 
the  beauty  of  the  world.  It  is  the  self-consciousness 
of  the  work  of  culture — a  consciousness  of  a  truth 
beyond  the  individuals  themselves — which,  through 
a  strengthening  of  itself,  raises  pantheism  to  a 
religion.  Its  atmosphere  of  greatness,  its  effort  to 
reach  beyond  the  antithesis  of  life,  and  its  giving 
reality  a  depth,  are  the  chief  recommendations  of 
pantheism. 

Such  things  are  no  small   merits.      Hut,  in  spite  of 


S218  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

all  its  lustre,  pantheism  discovers  no  contradiction  in 

the  inmost  nature  of  man,  and  such  a  failure  makes 
it  untenable,  and  transmutes  its  development  into  a 
subversion  of  the  self.  It  remains  an  indisputable 
fact  that  all  turn  to  religion  originates  out  of  an 
opposition  to  the  surrounding  world  ;  the  thought 
of  an  over-world  arises  and  gains  a  power  only 
because  the  near-at-hand  world  does  not  penetrate 
into  a  problem  whose  solution  dare  not  be  abandoned. 
Herewith,  it  is  characteristic  of  and  essential  to 
religion  that  it  develops  its  power  from  within  with- 
out in  opposition  to  the  surrounding  world  ;  and 
where  the  opposition  fades  or  fails,  its  energy 
immediately  relaxes.  The  idea  of  God  becomes 
unstable  where  no  inner  contradiction  carries  man 
beyond  the  world  and  furthers  a  life  above  the  world. 
All  movements  within  the  world  and  all  the  deepen- 
ing of  the  things  existing  in  it  can,  of  course,  further 
their  own  particular  conceptions,  but  they  cannot 
justify  a  breach  with  external  things,  and  it  is  through 
such  a  breach  that  the  idea  of  God  results.  Such  an 
idea  of  God  holds  within  itself  a  great  turn  of  life  and 
a  transformation  of  reality ;  it  issues  also  a  call  of 
the  whole  of  reason  to  the  struggle  against  unreason 
and  for  the  renewal  of  life.  All  this  lies  far  away 
from  pantheism. 

The  contradiction  referred  to  checks  the  develop- 
ment of  pantheism  and  drives  it  out  to  great  diver- 
gences. If  the  ideas  draw  God  and  the  world  in 
opposite  directions,  both  could  not  possibly  flow 
together  side  by  side ;  the  one  tends  to  overcome 
the  other,  and  seeks  to  absorb  the  other  into  itself. 
Where  the  movement  to  the  Godhead  stands  in  the 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       219 

foreground,  the  world  takes  its  flight  more  and  more 
to  the  realm  of  night  as  is  shown  in  mysticism ; 
where  the  movement  proceeds  mainly  in  the  direction 
of  the  world,  the  idea  of  God  evidently  fades  away 
until  finally  it  becomes  an  empty  word  which  trans- 
forms itself  from  pantheism  to  atheism.  The  develop- 
ment of  modern  life  down  to  the  brand-new  monism 
of  the  present  day  points  out  this  fact.  Pantheism 
often  dresses  things  with  an  indefinite  glamour  of  the 
Divine,  and  deceives  us  as  to  the  sharpness  of  the 
opposites  of  things.  Often  pantheism  is  no  more 
than  an  echo  of  a  real  and  energetic  religion  which 
has  been  transformed  into  a  sickly  sentimentalism — 
into  the  process  of  the  dissolution  of  real  religion. 

But  in  human  existence  the  hardest  inner  contra- 
diction hinders  in  no  way  a  true  realisation  and 
development  of  power,  so  that  this  remains  an 
historical  fact  in  spite  of  the  poverty  of  pantheism. 
But  pantheism  lias  rendered  the  service  of  working 
against  the  humanising  of  the  religious  conceptions, 
and  has  cast  its  glance  on  the  particular  connections 
of  things  and  on  the  presence  of  reason  within  the 
world,  and  especially  it  has  opposed  the  egoism  not 
only  of  the  individual  but  of  mankind,  and  also  has 
held  that  reality  is  to  be  possessed  not  through 
words  and  doctrines  but  through  the  opening  of  a 
new  life  out  of  the  Whole  and  Infinity.  But  its 
mistake  consists  in  that  it  recognises  the  highest  aim 
as  already  attained,  and  declares  all  divergence  from 
such  an  aim  as  a  mere  appearance.     This  ready-made 

kind  of  reality  has  precarious  results  in  varied 
directions.  [f  there  is  to  be  recognised  as  valid 
only    such    a    ready-made    reality,    and    if   it    is    not 


220 FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

shown  that  the  reason  of  things  can  only  be  attained 
through    labour   and    struggle,   then   life   transforms 
itself  into  a  mere  contemplation,  and  the  reconciliation 
with  reality  lies  then  merely  in  a  bare  contemplation 
of  an  artistic  or  scientific  kind.     This  point  is,  how- 
ever,   reached    at   the   cost   of  freedom  and   ethical 
handling,    for  both   of  which   there   is  no   place   in 
such  a  position.     At  the  same  time,  there  arises  an 
inclination  which  was  made  partially  clear  even  at 
the  start,  that  evil  is  to  be  considered  trivial  and  to 
be  glossed  over;    hence  the  danger  of  a  quietistic 
optimism  arises.     Here,  the  whole  of  the   Spiritual 
Life  receives  too  much  of  a  merely  natural  character ; 
it  may  be  conceived  as  a  restful  substance  and  as  a 
continuous  process,  but  it  does  not  appear  so  much 
as  the  freedom  and  the  destiny  of  man.     Thus  such 
a  course  falls  in  its  flight  to  the  level  of  the  mere- 
human,  and  becomes  under  the  ban  of  purely  natural 
conceptions — a   position  extremely  difficult   for   the 
Spiritual  Life  to  express  its  definiteness  and  depth. 
In  reality,  all  this  gliding  of  the   Divine   into  the 
world  tends  in  the  direction  of  concealing  the  op- 
posites  and  of  weakening  the  energy  of  movement. 
True,  religion  must  also  seek  for  the  Divine  in  the 
world,  but  it  can  find  it  only  when  it  has  developed 
and  stamped  its  impress  over  against  the  world  ;  for 
such  is  the  only  possible  way  to  distinguish  between 
reason  and  unreason,  to  drive  out  the  enemy  and  to 
uplift   the   kinsman.     It  is  characteristic  of  religion 
that  the  Divine  world  has  another  world  by  its  side 
which  somehow  strikes  its  roots  into  the  Divine,  and 
which  also  presents   the   aim  of  its  worship  as   an 
impetus  out  of  its  own  energy,  but  which  impetus, 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       221 

attains  to  this  aim  not  by  its  own  energy,  but  only 
through  being  lifted  up  to  it  by  the  Divine  world. 

In  the  primal  phenomenon  of  religion  a  two-fold 
aspect  is  imbedded  :  the  Absolute  Life  must  be 
effective  above  and  within  the  world ;  the  movement 
must  proceed  beyond  the  world  and  return  to  the 
world.  It  is  this  fact  especially  which  gives  religion 
its  driving  force,  its  incessant  life  from  ever  fresh 
sources.  The  two  things  are  not  separated  one  from 
the  other,  but  are  present  the  one  thing  with  the 
other.  Religion  thus  needs  a  continuous  overcom- 
ing of  the  opposition  of  dualism  and  pantheism, 
each  of  which  pursues  only  one  of  these  opposites, 
and  thus  soon  reaches  a  disastrous  point  of  rigid 
repose. 

(7)  Godhead  and  Man. — In  connection  with  the 
problem  of  the  relationship  between  the  Godhead  and 
man,  there  exists  especially  the  danger  of  making 
them  to  move,  within  the  realm  of  religion,  outside 
of  each  other  and  to  labour  against  each  other.  For 
if  Divine  and  human  action  are  brought  into  such  an 
opposition  to  each  other  that  the  gain  of  the  one 
signifies  the  loss  of  the  other,  all  the  freedom  of  man 
and  all  human  activity  become  prejudicial  to  the  all- 
power  of  the  Divine,  as  well  as  to  an  unconditioned 
surrender  of  man  ;  and  both  of  these  are  absolutely 
necessary  for  all  religion.  If  such  a  one-sided  course 
is  adopted,  religion  will  restrict  freedom  as  much  as 
possible  up  to  complete  annihilation  ;  indeed,  this  line 
of  thoughl  made  all  explicitly  religious  characters 
deterininists  in  their  consciousness.  If  consideration 
•for  the  practice  of  life  enforced  a  mitigation  in  these 
matters,  and  imposed  the  admission  of  a  CO-operation 


828  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

on  the  part  of  man  also,  such  behaviour  was  evidence 
rather  of  a  practical  cleverness  than  of  a  religious 
depth  and  logical  conclusions.  If,  however,  the  con- 
sequences are  thought  out  without  any  consideration 
for  human  opinion  and  individual  feelings,  determinism 
produces  an  apathy  of  each  and  all  of  our  activities, 
it  brings  about  a  blight  on  all  moral  endeavour  and 
introduces  the  most  deadly  enmity  between  morality 
and  religion.  Then,  all  redemption  is  supposed  to 
lie  in  a  fixed  miracle  ;  a  materialism  threatens  the 
substance  of  the  religious  life,  since  good  is  simply 
infused  into  us  without  being  transformed  into  our 
own  act.  All  this  leads  easily  to  an  overstrain  and 
an  untruth  ;  when  this  track  of  thought  is  followed, 
it  depicts  man  as  impotent,  depraved,  and  bad,  in 
order  to  allow  the  Divine  grace  to  shine  all  the 
clearer  against  such  a  dark  background  of  human 
existence.  We  have  thus  obtained  the  unfortunate 
doctrine  of  original  sin  which  drew  Christianity  into 
Manichaeism ;  and  thus  we  find  that  opinion  of 
Luther  that  man  does  not  so  much  acquire  righteous- 
ness as  that  righteousness  is  imputed  to  him  by  faith. 
Such  an  opinion,  if  thought  out,  resolves  the  great 
struggle  of  the  world  into  an  appearance  and 
a  play. 

Such  consequences — unavoidable  and  unbearable 
at  the  same  time  —  reveal  clearly  a  mistake  in 
the  fundamental  direction  of  this  line  of  thought. 
In  the  last  resort,  it  is  a  mistaken,  anthropomorphic, 
and  inadequate  course  of  thought  for  religion 
also,  to  attempt  to  heighten  the  conceptions  of  the 
greatness  of  the  Godhead  and  of  the  Divine  action 
through  the  debasement  of  man  and  his  capacities. 


THE   FACT  OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       223 

This  is  in  the  end  nothing  other  than  the  measurement 
of  the  Divine  by  the  standard  of  man  at  his  worst. 
In  reality  there  is  only  one  solution  to  the  problem : 
the  opposition  of  the  Divine  and  the  human  has,  in 
the  main,  to  be  abandoned,  and  the  development  of 
the  one  and  the  strengthening  of  the  other  at  the 
same  time  has  to  take  its  place.  The  freedom  and 
the  self-activity  of  man  are  not  a  withdrawal  of  the 
Divine  power  and  the  lessening  of  Divine  grace,  but 
they  are  the  verification  of  these — the  highest  verifica- 
tion of  all.  Morality  and  religion  do  not  strive  for 
some  other  province,  but,  rightly  understood,  morality 
itself  is  the  main  proof  of  the  fundamental  fact  of 
religion — of  the  presence  of  an  Absolute  Life.  The 
fact  that  man  is  raised  to  a  level  of  a  definite  Spiritual 
Life  over  against  his  own  weaknesses  and  the  contra- 
dictions of  a  boundless  world,  is  the  greatest  of  all 
miracles,  for  it  carries  within  itself  the  power  of  a 
world  above  the  world. 

How  all  this  is  possible,  how  freedom  arises  out  of 
grace,  and  self-activity  arises  out  of  dependence — this 
primal  phenomenon  overflows  all  explanation.  It 
has,  as  the  fundamental  condition  of  all  Spiritual  Life, 
a  universal  axiomatic  character.  This  shows  itself 
;is  no  isolated  problem,  but  is  a  higher  stage  of  a 
more  genera]  problem,  viz.,  how  out  of  the  connections 
of  the  world  an  individual  nature  of  a  psychic  kind — 
a  feeling  and  willing  nature — has  arisen,  and  lias  led 
its  own  life  in  opposition  to  all  the  environment?  It 
we  were  fortunate  enough  to  solve  litis  problem,  we 

could  then  •)<•  ready  to  handle  every  oilier. 

Bui  wli.ii  remains  a  greal  riddle  to  speculation  has 
been  transformed  into  a  religion  by  life  through   its 


JM  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

achievements.  Also,  even  with  the  great  determinists 
who  possessed  great  natures,  this  truth  has  been 
verified.  They  were  not  inactive  natures  dependent 
merely  on  hope  and  tarrying,  but  even  in  the 
proclamation  of  their  highest  conceptions  and  in  the 
shaping  of  their  own  inmost  nature  they  were  carried 
as  if  by  a  superior  power,  and  became  tools  for  the 
fulfilment  of  their  most  characteristic  aims.  The 
highest  achievement  of  freedom  carries  within  itself 
the  strongest  consciousness  of  dependence.  Paul 
more  than  anyone  has  brought  a  determinism  into 
Christianity,  but  at  the  same  time  he  worked  more 
than  all  his  contemporaries.  One  needs  only  follow 
Augustine  in  his  life-work  in  order  to  acknowledge 
him  as  one  of  the  most  active  of  personalities ;  and 
Luther's  energy  needs  no  proclamation  on  the  house- 
top. Further,  in  wider  circles  of  activity,  freedom 
and  dependence  can  run  together  as  is  proved  by  that 
Calvinism,  to  which  the  entire  conviction  was  present 
that  all  has  been  determined  solely  and  directly  by 
God  ;  and  yet  such  a  conviction  became  the  strongest 
motive  for  the  assertion  of  independence,  and  for 
the  sprouting  forth  of  the  most  fervent  work.  Thus 
a  problem  insoluble  by  the  mind  was  solved  by 
religion. 

The  solution,  however,  must  not  remain  confined 
to  those  personalities  and  epochs  to  whom  the  original 
welling-up  life  was  strong  enough  to  drive  back  and 
to  render  harmless  all  the  errors  of  the  psychical 
impulses  and  of  conscious  contentment.  The  solution 
must  be  recognised  clearly,  and  must  govern  the 
universal  configuration  of  religion.  In  all  this  the 
activity  does  not  revolve  around  a  struggle  of  bare 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       225 

opinions,  but  around  the  content  of  life.  Wherever 
antagonism  between  the  Godhead  and  mankind 
remains  in  power,  the  life  enters  into  a  dilemma — 
into  a  vacillation  to  and  fro  between  irreconcilable 
opposites.  Either  the  dependence  alone  fills  the 
conviction,  and  then  all  our  activity  appears  as 
useless,  and,  indeed,  as  a  blasphemy ;  thus  religion 
becomes  almost  entirely  passive  and  receives  a  gloomy, 
doleful,  and  unmanly  character  ;  it  becomes  a  danger 
to  the  freedom  and  the  energy  of  life ;  it  easily 
engenders,  in  its  turn  towards  pietism,  a  dejected 
and  cowed  character — a  character  of  painful  unver- 
acity  wherein  the  man  imagines  that  he  is  great  in 
his  nothingness,  and  so  superior  to  another  who  seems 
to  be  conscious  of  his  own  powers.  All  this  happens 
the  more  the  man  builds  and  confesses  his  feeling 
of  detestableness  of  all  he  has.  When,  however,  in 
the  reaction  against  such  a  disposition  of  mind  a  fresh 
and  frank  courage  of  life  arises — when  the  man 
holds  fast  the  opposites,  the  previous  danger  is  escaped, 
and  the  man  feels,  unfolds,  and  enjoys  his  own  energy  ; 
such  a  feeling  heightens  to  a  defiant  self-consciousness 
;iik1  to  the  placing  on  one  side  of  the  Divine.  The 
consequence  is  that  culture  thus  takes  a  turn  against 
religion,  and  treats  it  as  a  mere  expression  of  weakness 
and  as  a  refuge  for  sick  souls.  Hut  all  this  leads 
rapidly  to  a  reaction.  The  more  such  a  development 
of  culture  wipes  out  from  the  contents  of  life  every- 
thing absolute  ;iik1  all  the  problems  of  the  Absolute, 
the  more  it  extinguishes  the  gleam  of  the  over-world 
which  surrounds  our  existence.  Then  life,  in  spite 
of  all  its  activities,  becomes  inwardly  shallower  and 
emptier,  until  at  last  it  turns  again  home— turns  in 

15 


226  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

search  of  a   content,    in   search  of  a   spiritual   self- 
preservation  within  the  domain  of  religion. 

If  such  a  change  for  the  worse  in  the  realm  of 
culture  is  to  be  viewed  in  our  day,  the  more  necessary 
it  behoves  us  to  raise  religion  by  means  of  the  nature 
of  its  substance  above  this  situation,  in  order  that  it 
may  construct  its  superiority  above  the  mere  mentality 
of  the  day,  and  in  order  that  eternal  truth  may  be 
rightly  held  up  against  all  the  fluctuations  and  errors 
of  human  existence. 

(8)  The  Psychic  Connections  of  Religion. — It  is  a 
main  point  in  our  method  of  investigation  to  differ- 
entiate clearly  between  the  foundation  of  the  spiritual 
contents  in  the  characteristic  connections  of  the 
spiritual  world,  and  their  stimulations  in  psychic 
existence ;  or,  in  other  words,  to  hold  separate  a 
noological  and  a  psychological  treatment.  Thus  the 
previous  investigation  of  the  religious  problem  needs 
a  completion  through  the  presence  of  the  psychic 
motives  which  prepare  and  incline  man  for  religion. 

The  discovery  of  a  pointed  contradiction  in  our 
life — the  strong  contradiction  between  need  and 
reality  —  constitutes  the  starting-point  of  all  the 
turn  towards  religion ;  for  how  could  we  in  any 
other  way  come  to  strive  so  eagerly  to  reach  beyond 
the  province  of  that  experience  which  threatens  to 
break  the  connection  of  the  world  and  the  unity  of 
our  own  existence  ?  This  contrast  is  in  the  first  place 
a  fact  of  feeling.  Feeling  constructs  the  psychic 
starting-point  of  religion,  but  it  remains  certainly 
fundamentally  different  from  the  spiritual  root  of 
religion.  But  the  observation  of  a  contrast — the 
painful  discovery  of  a  contradiction — has  an   indis- 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       227 

pensable  hypothesis  in  spiritual  things.     Such  a  con- 
tradiction could  not  have  entered  into  the  life  had 
not  some  kind  of  movement  been  already  awakened 
in  us — some  kind  of  impetus  after  a  higher  kind  of 
happiness  been  kindled;  for  purely  external  misfor- 
tunes produce  no  shock  in  the  deepest  recesses  of  the 
soul  and  engender  no  feeling  of  the  real  nature  of  the 
hindrance.     We  see  often,  however,  on  the  political 
and  social  sides,  the  most  stubborn  evils  and  grievances 
enduring  for  a  great  length  of  time  without  engen- 
dering a  feeling  of  pain,  and  without  calling  forth  a 
strong  indignation.     The  callousness  is  even  so  great 
that  the  external  events  pass  over  the  soul  without 
any  reaction  on  its  part ;  and  the  immediate  impres- 
sions  do    not   link   themselves   together   to   form    a 
Whole.     But  there  is  imbedded  in  the  discovery  of  the 
contradiction  some  kind  of  longing  after  happiness : 
a  positive  need  of  life  is  the  first  thing  found  in  the 
foundation,  which  drives  life  upon  the  track  of  religion. 
If  such  a  need  of  life  met  with  no  hindrance,  no 
kind  of  entanglement  would  arise;  if  the  opposition 
could  be  conquered,  though  not  at  once  yet  in  the 
course  of  time    through    external  circumstances,  life 
and    striving  would    be    held    fast   by  such    external 
circumstances  more  than  they  would  be  raised  above 
them.       A    breach    can    only    take    place    when    the 
opposition   appears   as  insurmountable — insurmount- 
able for  present  and  future,  for  achievement  and  for 
hope.     Through  such  a  situation  the  striving  is  either 
to  discontinue  as   being  quite  hopeless,  <>r  it  must 
open  out   new  avenues   of  a   complete  transforming 
view  of  the  world  and  of  life     A  closer  investigation 
of  that  wherein    the  hindrance  and  the  problem   are 


228  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

discovered  shows  how  deep  this  inward  revolution 
goes,  and  in  what  directions  it  carries  the  man.  We 
see  in  the  course  of  history  itself  more  and  more 
elements  moving  from  the  outward  into  the  inward 
and  thus  deepening  the  inward  itself.  Although  in 
the  beginning  all  this  might  have  been  the  external 
entanglement  which  our  own  energy  could  not 
remove  and  which  called  for  supernatural  aid,  yet 
soon  the  inward  condition  steps  into  the  foreground 
and  insists  on  a  spiritual  redemption.  Also,  it  makes 
an  important  difference  whether  the  entanglement  is 
discovered  in  what  a  man  thinks  or  in  what  he  does ; 
whether  the  contradiction  roots  itself  in  an  existence 
laid  upon  the  man  by  a  destiny  which  does  not 
correspond  with  and  even  contradicts  his  inmost 
nature,  or  whether  the  hindrances  belong  to  the  soul 
itself  and  whether  man  can  sanction  his  own  striving 
and  being  in  the  attempts  to  remove  them.  In  all 
this  the  pain  becomes  violent,  and  the  awakened  soul 
is  hurried  along  if  the  impressions  and  feelings  remain 
unscattered  but  unite  into  a  Whole  of  experience 
and  judgment  and  work  with  the  energy  of  a  Whole  ; 
and  through  this  revelation  of  the  nature  of  our  life 
the  whole  level  of  our  ordinary  existence  becomes 
insufficient  and  even  intolerable. 

This  judgment  in  its  turn  will  reach  its  greatest 
resoluteness,  and  the  situation  of  the  soul  will  reach 
its  greatest  tension  when  the  main  ground  of  our 
malady  is  seen  to  consist  not  in  that  we  can  never 
reach  worthy  aims,  and  must  always  remain  in  a  state 
of  imperfection,  but  in  that  the  very  aims  them- 
selves are  now  in  doubt,  in  that  they  promise  no 
definite  happiness,  and  in  that  incessant  courage  and 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       229 

work  appear  worthless.  If,  then,  such  aims  do  not 
suffice,  what  shall  we  hope  for,  and  where  shall  we 
turn  ? 

The  crisis  now  comes  to  a  full  outburst ;  the 
previous  situation  is  seen  through  as  untenable,  and 
it  now  becomes  necessary  to  go  backward  or  forward. 
Either  every  striving  after  happiness  and  after  the 
noblest  things  has  to  be  viewed  as  a  tragic  error, 
and  has  to  surrender  itself  to  a  total  dissolution,  or 
a  great  turn  results,  a  new  point  of  departure  is  won 
for  the  life,  and  a  new  world  is  discovered.  All 
attempts  to  weaken  this  Eitlier-Or  lead  to  sickly 
compromises,  to  the  deadness  of  the  feelings,  and  to 
the  one-sidedness  of  life  itself. 

But  through  such  a  turn  to  his  inmost  nature, 
there  originates  in  man  a  decisive  struggle  concerning 
Being  and  non-being.  Often  enough  has  the  negation 
conquered  with  innumerable  individuals,  with  whole 
times  and  epochs,  and  has  gained  the  overhand  in 
the  particular  province  of  religion  as  is  shown  so 
evidently  in  Buddhism.  But  it  has  not  always 
conquered,  for  the  affirmation,  too,  has  become  a 
world-power,  and  it  is  this  affirmation  which  preserves 
rightly  human  life  and  effort.  The  point  where 
such  a  decision  fulls  on  the  individual — and  it  is  this 
fact  which  occupies  us  here — lies  largely  on  the  other 
side  of  the  province  of  "grounds"  and  aims,  and 
there  appears  in  its  existence  something  axiomatic, 
original,  and  elevated.  The  decision  occupies  itself 
with  the  question  as  to  whether  an  impetus  of  life  is 
to  awaken  -an  impetus  that  no  upheaval  can  destroy, 
and  which  shows  that,  with  all  the  surrender  of  the 
natural  self  and  all  the  overthrow  of  prior  happiness. 


280  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

something  remains  in  man — something  he  cannot 
destroy.  It  cannot  he  destroyed  because  man  ac- 
knowledges it  not  as  a  special  possession  of  his  own 
hut  as  the  inward  presence  of  a  new  world  which 
makes  itself  felt  and  efficacious  in  the  greatest  catas- 
trophes of  life,  and  indeed,  is  ahle  to  grow  on  account 
of  these.  Through  such  a  turn  the  presence  and 
mystery  of  the  suffering  itself  become  the  beginning 
of  an  elevation  beyond  it. 

Thus  we  discover  the  co-operation  of  two  factors 
in  what  leads  man  to  religion,  and  in  what  exercises 
a  power  over  his  soul,  viz.,  a  deeper  discovery  of  the 
hindrances  of  the  world,  and  an  iron  energy  over 
against  the  hindrances  right  up  to  the  achievement 
of  a  new  world.  We  saw  how  the  discovery  of  the 
actual  situation  could  not  have  been  made  without 
some  kind  of  a  stirring  existence  of  the  inward 
energy.  And  it  is  this  stirring  existence  which  drives 
the  energy  beyond  its  natural  initial  stage,  stimulates 
it  to  a  progressive  depth,  and  furthers  the  physical 
tension  of  life  into  a  metaphysical  tension.  The 
whole  of  this  is  a  movement  of  life  all  along  the  line 
through  difficult  hindrances  ;  it  is  the  assertion,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  the  transformation  of  a  Yea 
in  the  midst  of  the  strongest  negation.  Indeed,  it 
is  the  holding  fast  of  a  Yea  in  the  Nay ;  it  is 
an  ascent  of  the  nature  whose  freshness  and  truth 
can  only  be  asserted  when  both  sides  are  held  forth 
and  ever  anew  are  experienced.  Thus  there  is  set 
forth  a  dialectic  not  of  ideas  but  of  life — a  focusing 
of  deep  experience  and  manly  energy  and  a  puri- 
fication of  one  through  the  other,  an  ever-freer 
elevation  above  the  antithesis  of  bare  natural  energy 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION        231 

and  effeminate  weakness,  and  finally  the  dawning  of 
a  heroism  of  the  most  inward  kind.  All  this  sets  a 
world  against  a  world,  and  out  of  the  catastrophe 
itself  a  new  life  is  born. 

(e)  The  Characteristic  Features  of  the  Religion  of 
the  Spiritual  Life. —  Religion  does  not  deal  with  the 
conservation  of  man  as  mere  man,  but  with  the  con- 
servation of  the  Spiritual  Life  in  man ;  for  in  con- 
nection with  religion  there  stands  in  question  the 
winning  of  a  definite  Spiritual  Life ;  and  religion 
must  set  forth  in  a  characteristic  manner  the  parti- 
cular features  of  such  a  life  as  well  as  its  total- view. 
In  connection  with  these  particular  features  we  must 
present  at  least  some  of  them. 

1.  Where  religion  is  directed  upon  the  winning  of 
a  new  and  elevated  life  superior  to  all  human  impulses, 
its  sublimity  must  contend  with  special  energy  for  a 
province  beyond  all  human  interests  and  parties. 
Religion  is  never  mixed  in  a  Yea  or  a  Nay 
with  political  or  social  problems.  Religion  has 
nothing  whatever  to  do  as  to  whether  monarchy 
or  republic,  individualistic  or  socialistic  presentation 
of*  economic  relation,  is  the  better  condition  of  tilings  ; 
;iikI  he  who  draws  religion  into  these  spheres,  even  if 
he  is  of  the  opinion  that  one  of  them  is  useful  for 
humanity,  will  find  an  opponent  who  thinks  quite  as 
strongly  in  a  contrary  direction.  No  less  injurious  it 
is  to  handle  religion  in  the  interests  of  a  political  or 
social  radicalism,  or  to  defame  it  in  the  interests  of 
the  privileged  classes.  How  deplorably  would  one 
think  of  the  nature  of  man  if  religion  meant  no  more 
than  this,  and  how  little  would  man  think  of  himself 
if   the  abandonment    of  spirituality   and,   along   with 


52;i!2  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

this,  the  abandonment  of  the  content  and  meaning  of 
his  own  life  come  about  so  easily ! 

2.  We  have  already  shown  how  the  Spiritual  Life 
with  its  construction  of  a  discovered  reality  within 
itself  goes  behind  the  psychic  form  of  life  with  all  its 
ramifications,  and  how  it  has  transformed  the  whole 
province,  in  so  far  as  such  a  province  had  connections 
with  such  a  life,  into  a  mere  appearance.  Wherever 
the  eclipse  of  this  truth  happens,  there  is  called  forth 
difficult  entanglements  and  passionate  discords  which 
affect  deeply  the  configuration  of  religion. 

Thus,  the  old-rooted  intellectualism  turns  the  great- 
ness of  religion  into  a  hybrid  of  many  colours. 
Religion  should  be  a  fact  of  the  whole  man  and  of 
his  own  decision,  but  may,  however,  fail  to  possess 
more  than  a  purely  intellectual  character.  Through 
this,  the  main  fact  of  religion  is  stunted  in  its  growth, 
and  conscience  and  conviction  are  oppressed.  This 
appears  most  of  all  in  the  conception  of  belief.  The 
welfare  of  the  soul  can  never  link  itself  to  belief  unless 
that  belief  means  more  than  an  authoritatively  trans- 
mitted doctrine,  and  unless  the  man  in  the  inmost 
substance  of  his  soul  stretches  forth  towards  the 
belief.  The  ecclesiastical  form  of  religion  has  suc- 
ceeded but  little  in  working  out  this  connection  of 
belief,  and  is  unable  to  succeed  on  account  of  its  ad- 
mixture of  the  substance  and  the  existence-form  of  the 
Spiritual  Life.  The  Divine  Life  in  its  possession  by 
man  transforms  itself  unfortunately  into  a  doctrine — 
a  doctrine  of  the  redemption  of  the  soul  and  of  "  last 
things,"  but  still  a  doctrine  ;  the  more  such  a  doctrine 
surmounts  reason  and  even  contradicts  reason,  the 
greater  seems  the  sacrifice  of  the  power  of  affirma- 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       233 

tion  and  of  the  heroism  of  the  character.  Now, 
heroism  certainly  belongs  to  religion — more  heroism, 
indeed,  than  belongs  to  any  other  fact  in  the  world — 
but  this  heroism  must  set  itself  in  the  right  position, 
for  otherwise  the  valour  becomes  a  caprice  and  the 
consolidation  becomes  a  torpor.  The  heroism  is  not 
brought  about  through  any  kind  of  doctrine  which 
constructs  the  object  of  life,  but  through  the  presence 
of  an  Absolute  Life  in  our  own  nature ;  then,  belief 
is  no  mere  agreement  with  any  doctrine,  but  there  is 
imbedded  in  it  an  ascent  of  the  whole  existence  of 
our  nature,  a  longing  for  the  heights,  and  a  pro- 
gressive certainty  of  such  heights  out  of  the  energy 
of  the  Divine  Life.  Thus,  belief  in  its  foundation 
rests  upon  one  thing  alone,  but  that  one  thing  is  the 
kernel  of  a  new  world.  At  the  same  time,  belief  is 
naturally  a  source  of  new  convictions,  but  these  con- 
victions will  not  be  developed  without  arranging 
themselves  with  the  general  position  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  and  without  utilising  the  experiences  of  life. 

Such  a  character  of  belief  alone  makes  it  clear  how 
its  counterpart — doubt — can  play  such  a  great  part 
in  religion  as  in  reality  it  does.  So  long  as  belief 
rests  upon  bare  doctrine,  it  remains  undiscoverable 
how  doubt  agitates  so  strongly  the  soul,  and  how  it 
can  shatter  so  deeply  the  life.  We  have  seen,  how- 
ever, how  in  ancient  times  that,  when  the  religious 
problem  stood  in  the  background  of  the  Spiritual 
Life,  doubt  and  scepticism  were  recommended  by 
clever  men  as  the  best  remedies  lor  the  comfort  of 
the  soul.  On  that  account  Christianity  has  become 
something  quite  other,  because,  through  the  relation- 
ship to  God,  the  gain  of  a  new  nature — the  salvation 


284  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

of  the  threatened  soul  became  the  great  quest. 
Hut  if  the  matter  deals  with  the  question  concerning 
spiritual  existence  or  its  non-existence,  the  strength  of 
doubt  leads  quickly  to  despair.  The  shrinkage  be- 
comes so  painful  and  the  coercion  so  intolerable  when 
orthodoxy  places  doctrine  between  us  and  life,  and 
decides  as  to  the  place  of  church  dogmas  in  connec- 
tion with  the  welfare  and  salvation  of  man. 

A  fundamental  driving  out  of  intellectualism  in 
this  and  in  other  religious  conceptions,  as,  for  example, 
in  the  ordinary  conception  of  revelation,  is  necessary 
in  the  urgent  need  of  religion.  But  such  a  conquest 
will  only  take  place  through  the  recognition  of  the 
truth-elements  of  intellectualism,  especially  in  its 
desire  after  a  world  of  thought ;  it  will  not  take  place 
through  placing  ourselves  in  an  entirely  contrary 
position  to  the  world  of  thought,  or  through  attempt- 
ing to  found  religion  upon  bare  feeling  or  will.  For 
if  the  conquest  has  the  conjecture,  that  it  is  only 
reachable  simply  through  the  setting-up  of  a  contrary 
valid  doctrine,  it  is  easy  to  see,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  bare  feeling  or  will  yields  a  spiritual  substance 
quite  as  little  as  bare  knowledge.  Strong  subjective 
feelings  and  strong  subjective  acts  of  will  may  con- 
tain but  very  little  spiritual  substance.  The  appear- 
ance of  a  success  only  is  reached  in  such  a  manner, 
for,  often  unobserved,  something  becomes  a  spurious 
image  of  something  deeper,  more  essential,  and  more 
substantial,  and  which  makes  its  appearance  as  feel- 
ing or  will,  but  which  does  not  reach  the  higher 
stage  of  a  feeling  or  willing  entity.  What  brings  the 
opposition  of  intellectualism  and  voluntarism  to  ruins 
are   the   problems   within  the   Spiritual   Life  ;   these 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       235 

problems  handle  the  different  sides  and  tasks  of  life 
which  on  the  surface  are  at  variance  with  one  another 
and  play  against  one  another,  whilst  in  reality  they 
depend  on  one  another  and  belong  to  an  encompass- 
ing Whole.  If  something  did  lie  beneath  and  pro- 
ceed out  of  all  the  k'  isms,"  we  could  say  that  Noeti- 
cism  l  alone  is  able  to  found  securely  religion,  and  it  is 
out  of  this  noetic  synthesis  that  the  struggle  against 
the  discord  begins. 

3.  We  have  seen  that  religion  has  to  do  with  the 
whole  of  life,  and  that  it  pledges  to  uplift  this  whole  ; 
therefore  it  does  more  than  construct  a  special 
province  over  against  the  remaining  portions  of  life  ; 
it  must  strike  its  effects  in  all  directions,  and  it  works 
less  directly  upon  the  particular  provinces  than  upon 
the  transformation  of  the  total-life.  All  the  direct 
effects  of  religion,  as,  for  example,  upon  science,  art, 
the  state,  have  grave  dangers  and  lead  easily  to 
coercion  and  contraction,  and  are  rightly  rejected. 
Hut  it  is  a  fundamental  mistake,  when  such  direct 
actions  are  rejected,  to  reject  the  indirect  actions  as 
well.  Since  religion  transforms  the  whole  man,  it 
will  also  change,  through  its  ramifications  into  the 
whole  nature,  problems  into  energies,  and  aims  into 
points  of  attack.  Hut  such  changes  do  not  occur 
through  any  arbitrary  command  from  the  outside,  but 
through  a  tranquil  and,  certainly,  a  mighty— effect 
from   within   without.      Conceived    of   in    its    univer- 

1    The     Substantive    " Noeticism ''    is    nol     round    in    English 
Philosophy.     The  terms  "  noetic  synthesis  "  and  "noetic  conscious 
ne     "  are  found,  but  in  a  Bomewhal  differenl  scum-.     ('/'.  Stout's 
Analytic   Psychology,  vol.  ii.  ch.   v.;    Martineau's   Types  of  Ethical 
Theory,    vol.    ii.    pp.    148    145,   where    he   deals  with    Cudworth' 
"intelligible  ideas"  (vo^/tara)      Translator. 


236  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

sality  (although  this  universality  does  not  form  the 
final  conclusions  of  religion)  religion  needs  no  special 
organisation,  but  is  able  through  an  invisible  sway  to 
penetrate  through  the  whole  work  of  life.  Indeed, 
the  deeper  it  works,  the  less  it  steps  into  publicity, 
and  the  more  it  signifies  nothing  other  than  the 
tranquil  and  yet  powerful  soul  of  the  whole.  Thus 
in  the  great  souls  whose  convictions  were  filled  with 
such  a  universal  nature  of  religion,  the  incomprehen- 
siveness  and  the  inscrutableness  of  the  Highest 
Essence  do  not  discourage  and  lower  the  pressure  of 
such  souls,  but  work  in  a  gravitating  and  elevating 
direction.  Thus,  we  find  the  deep-religious  Plato 
stating  that  it  is  difficult  to  know  God,  and  impos- 
sible to  communicate  in  an  entire  manner  with  Him  ; 
and  also  Goethe  states  that  a  man  hardly  confesses  his 
belief  in  a  Divine  Nature  without  at  the  same  time 
confessing  the  inscrutableness  of  the  Divine  Nature. 

But  still  in  conformity  with  this,  all  the  conceptions 
of  religion  must  carry  the  character  of  universality  ; 
they  must  extend  themselves  over  the  whole  life  and, 
through  this,  fasten  together  and  strengthen  what 
does  not  proceed  to  a  full  development  in  the  isola- 
tion of  the  various  elements  of  life.  Human  life, 
right  down  to  the  abyss  of  pain  and  sin,  is  full  of 
testimonies  of  a  superhuman  Divine  life  which  in 
manifold  ways  appears  as  an  elevation  above  all 
smallness,  as  an  illumination  of  the  darkness,  and  as 
a  dawning  of  love  and  mercy  in  the  midst  of  all 
egotistic  instincts  and  impulses.  Religion  must 
gather  together,  through  the  energy  of  its  universal 
nature,  such  external  and  scattered  effects,  and 
understand  and  revere  them  as  parts  of  a  more  general 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       237 

life.  Such  universal  religion  does  not  exclude  a 
turning  to  characteristic  religion ;  but  if  religion  is 
to  extend  its  power  over  the  whole  of  life,  its 
values  must  possess  an  all-comprehensiveness  and  an 
omnipresence. 

This  is  shown,  for  example,  in  the  idea  of  sacrifice. 
Sacrifice  is  a  supremely  important  conception  in 
religion,  since  only  by  its  acceptance  does  religion 
attain  to  full  seriousness.  For  without  a  funda- 
mental renunciation,  and  indeed,  without  a  seeming 
collapse,  there  is  no  secure  ascent  to  a  new  summit — 
no  attainment  of  a  real  life.  But  let  not  sacrifice 
be  limited  by  religion  to  specific  religious  perform- 
ances, but  let  religion  reveal  it  as  present  through- 
out life,  and  let  it  weld  together  and  inwardly  raise 
all  this  sacrifice.  As  the  energy  of  love  is  measured 
in  human  circles  by  the  greatness  of  the  sacrifice  it 
is  capable  of  bringing  forth,  so  there  is  no  genuine 
movement  towards  truth  without  denial  and  renun- 
ciation— without  an  indwelling  sacrifice.  But  in 
the  survey  of  the  whole  it  becomes  clear  that 
sacrifice  does  not  restrict  itself  to  the  surrender  of 
this  or  that  good,  but  demands  nothing  less  than 
the  whole  natural  impulses  of  life.  When  religion 
works  in  such  a  manner  that  we  are  made  to  see 
.•iiid  to  experience  the  Whole  in  the  parts,  the 
great  in  the  small,  it  works  therewith  for  the  puri- 
fication and  sanctification  of  life  right  down  to  its 
most  insignificant  details. 

It  is  similar  with  the  conception  of  Faith.  Faith 
which  the  customary  mode  of  religion  confines 
far  too  much  within  an  isolated  province,  and  which 
it    conceives    in    Par    too    intellect  ualistie    a    manner, 


288  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

extends,  in  reality,  its  strengthening  and  elevating 
energy  to  the  whole  range  of  life.  Faith,  accord- 
ing to  the  customary  teaching  of  religion,  has  for 
its  object  something  invisible  and  seemingly  im- 
possible. Where,  however,  was  there  a  progressive 
striving  in  spiritual  things  which  did  not,  at  the 
first  glance,  appear  impossible,  and  which  did  not 
trust  in  the  inner  ability  of  being  lifted  up  and 
in  the  possibility  of  creating  a  new  man  ?  How, 
without  this,  would  any  kind  of  scientific  or 
aesthetic  creativeness  of  an  elevated  kind  be  con- 
ceivable ?  How  any  confiding  love  ?  How  any 
joyous  action  for  man's  purification  in  spite  of  all 
the  appearances  and  all  the  meanness  of  shallow 
experience  ?  And,  again,  all  faith  has  the  character- 
istic that  we  cannot  become  its  possessors  through 
the  might  and  main  of  our  own  labours,  but  that 
it  rather  devolves  upon  us  as  a  favour,  and  must 
be  offered  to  us  as  a  free  gift.  This  is  so,  not 
only  with  faith  in  another,  but  also  with  faith  in  our- 
selves, in  our  tasks,  and  in  our  life-work.  Nowhere 
do  we  enter  into  genuine  work  and  creativeness 
without  a  conviction  of  an  axiomatic  character, 
which  refuses  to  be  analysed  into  reasons  and  which, 
indeed,  precedes  all  such  reasons.  What,  however, 
is  desired  at  the  single  points,  and  is  there  affirmed, 
though  often  unconsciously  and  unwillingly,  gains  a 
clear  light  only  in  its  integration  into  a  Whole, 
and  through  the  recognition  of  the  inner  presence 
of  an  infinite  energy  from  which  an  indestructible 
trust  and  an  unbounded  ability  of  ascent  can  pro- 
ceed. Again,  it  is  religion  which  has  to  raise  to 
the  power  and  clearness  of  a  principle  what  indeed 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION        239 

now  penetrates  the  whole  of  life,  but  which  there, 
in  the  breadth  of  life,  remains  manifoldly  scattered 
and  obscured.  Thus,  while  religion  integrates  and 
brings  into  activity  as  a  whole  whatever  of  noble 
and  elevating  force  lies  hidden  in  our  lives,  it  effects 
a  transfiguration  of  life  without  denying  its  dark 
side ;  it  shows  the  Divine  in  the  things  nearest  at 
hand  without  idealising  falsely  the  ordinary  situation 
of  life. 

4.  This  integrating  energy  would  prepare  many 
a  danger  for  religion  did  there  not  stand  by  its 
side  an  energy  of  discrimination ;  and  such  a  dis- 
criminating energy  is  developed  by  religion  even 
of  the  general  kind  which  occupies  us  here.  For 
as  certainly  as  religion  aims  at  the  whole  of  the 
Spiritual  Life,  does  it  desire  such  a  life  in  its  full 
purity,  but  it  is  able  to  do  this  only  through  an 
energetic  discrimination  in  the  human  situation  be- 
tween genuine  spirituality  and  its  mere  semblance. 
Because  religion  dives  into  a  substantial  Spiritual 
Life  and  constructs  its  nature  from  the  Life-process, 
it  will  exclude  much  as  being  adulterated,  but  will 
find  more  depth  in  what  it  approves  as  genuine ; 
and  it  will  raise  the  genuine  out  of  its  isolation  to 
a  union,  out  of  its  chaos  to  a  cosmos,  and  out 
of  its  merely  parasitical  quality  to  a  characteristic 
act  and  full  possession  of  the  spirit.  But  a  hard 
struggle  has  to  take  place  in  order  to  carry  through 
a  true  Spiritual  Life  against  that  semi-spirituality 
which  satisfies  the  ordinary  situation  of  human 
life,  and  which  treacherously  makes  man  feci  com- 
fort able.  This  is  nothing  less  than  a  struggle  for 
reality    against    appearance,    a     struggle    for    a    true 


240  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

spiritual   culture  over  against   a  merely  human  cul- 
ture.    True,  the  amount  of  life,  now  restricted  to  its 
genuine  constituents,  is  thus  greatly  reduced  ;  but  in 
what   remains   incomparably   more    is   seen.      There 
arises  now  a  hard  conflict  with  the  customary  mode 
of  thought,  especially  because  this  mode  of  thought 
attributes   spirituality,    and   with    it    greatness    and 
dignity,  to  its  forms  of  life,  as  though  they  were  the 
latter's   natural   properties,  whereas  religion   already 
clearly  shows  that  only  a  certain  kernel  of  spirituality, 
or  a  movement  towards  spirituality,  is  present  from 
the  first,  and  that  these  have  to  attain  to  more  by 
a   hard   struggle.     But,    at   the   same   time,    a    new 
order  of  things   and   the   presence   of  a  new  world 
appear  in  the  Spiritual  Life.     Man,  indeed,  is   not, 
with  the  whole  of  his  existence,  straight-away  a  per- 
sonality ;  there  only  lies  implanted  in  him  a  power  to 
become  a  personality — a  power  over  against  a  nature 
of  a  very  different  kind,  and  which  has   to  win   its 
way  through    such    a  nature.     But  this  becoming  a 
personality  is  now  recognised  as  an  emancipation  from 
all   existential  tiedness  to  an  external  point  and  an 
elevation  to  a  self-life  of  a  universal  kind.     Morality 
signifies   now  not  a  quality  pertaining  to  man  as  a 
natural  being,  since  what  the  ordinary  life  manifests 
in  the  way  of  social  instincts  and  of  occasional  sym- 
pathy  forms,    at   the   most,    no    more   than   a   step 
preliminary  to  morality  and  can  be  ranked  without 
hesitation  as  a  mere  continuation  of  the  animal  level. 
Genuine  morality  arises  not  earlier  than  at  the  stage 
of  the  Spiritual  Life,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  dispute  how 
much  or  how  little  of  this  we  meet  in  human  life  by 
itself;   but,  much  or  little,  morality  appears  in   our 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       241 

domain,  and  along  with  it  there  appears  a  kingdom  of 
a  superior  kind.  So  that  the  man  in  the  transforma- 
tion may  lose  some  of  the  experiences  of  the  natural 
level,  but  certainly  man's  nature  has  gained  in  depth 
and  breadth  through  such  a  transformation. 

Man  has  been  well  termed  an  "  historical  nature," 
but  most  of  what  is  termed  his  history  differentiates 
itself  too  little  from  what  is  found  in  the  changes 
and  deposits  of  nature.  History,  in  the  distinctive 
human  and  mental  sense  it  is  taken,  never  originates 
through  the  bare  succession  of  time,  but  throughout 
in  the  sense  that  something  is  held  fast,  experienced, 
and  its  nature  brought  into  an  inner  connection. 
However,  such  a  feat  can  happen  only  through  the 
presence  of  a  standard  superior  to  time,  which  creates 
the  effect  of  an  order  of  things  above  time.  But 
with  such  elevation  history  transforms  itself  from 
being  a  mere  fact  to  being  a  difficult  task.  And  the 
matter  does  not  stand  otherwise  in  connection  with 
the  problem  of  society.  Society,  too,  in  the  dis- 
tinctive human  and  mental  sense,  is  not  any  ready- 
made  thing,  but  has  to  be  evolved,  and  to  it  belongs 
an  inner  unity  of  life— a  total-life.  Little  enough 
of  this  finds  its  way  to  our  experience,  but  the  little 
that  <locs  find  its  way  refers  back  to  an  order  of 
things  superior  to  nature  and  its  scattered  elements. 

There  is  thus  imbedded  universally  in  human  life 

something  deeper,  although  it  may  appear  first  of  all 

only  in  the  faintest  manner,  and  it  is  religion  which 

r.-iises    up,    t>in<is,    and  energises    this   deeper  quality. 

Thus,    religion   performs  universally  a  dissection  of 

human  life,  sets  the  life,  through  the  working  out  of 

its    deep,  in    an    enormous    movement,   and    calls    it 

16 


242  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

to  an  immense  struggle.  Religion,  in  all  this,  is  very 
far  from  explaining  life  as  being  on  its  natural  plane 
something  superior  or  even  tolerable ;  far  more  through 
its  elevation  religion  casts  a  gloom  over  the  provinces 
of  life  with  all  their  hindrance  and  shallowness  ;  but  in 
all  this  natural  opposition  to  religion,  religion  cannot 
be  destroyed,  for  the  presence  of  an  Absolute  Life 
verifies  a  fixed  nucleus  and  the  certainty  of  a  conquest. 

Thus  religion  stands  beyond  the  opposites  of  opti- 
mism and  pessimism,  for  it  is  able  to  acknowledge  the 
total  fulness  of  wrong  without  forfeiting  the  joy  of 
belief  or  even  without  diminishing  it.  Indeed,  religion 
has,  especially  in  tattered  and  dejected  times,  won 
the  hearts  of  men.  The  clear  call  of  an  Absolute 
Life  must  bring  the  wide  differences  of  our  exist- 
ence to  consciousness  and,  along  with  this,  work  for 
the  heightening  of  the  suffering.  The  contradictions 
of  our  existence  appear,  when  the  situation  is  seen  as 
it  really  is,  far  too  pointed,  and  the  unreason  far  too 
powerful  to  be  veiled  by  an  optimistic  mood.  But 
the  strongest  discovery  of  the  contradictions  and 
their  agony  cannot  create  a  hopeless  pessimism,  but 
it  is  first  and  foremost  the  appearance  of  a  new  world 
— the  presence  of  an  Infinite  Life — which  makes  our 
ordinary  existence  inadequate. 

This  twofold  aspect  gives  the  total  effect  of  religion 
a  twofold  character.  On  the  one  side,  it  means  a 
loosening,  a  freeing,  a  redemption  from  the  old  world  ; 
and  on  the  other  side,  an  elevation  into  a  new  one. 
A  uniform  development  and  an  incessant  reciprocal 
action  of  both  sides  do  not  take  place  if  the  life  is 
coerced  and  is  morose,  or  if  it  considers  the  main  fact 
in  a  superficial  manner. 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       243 

Also,  inasmuch  as  religion  appears  as  a  kingdom 
of  continuous  development — as  that  which  constructs 
the  fundamental  facts  on  their  Divine  side,  and  as 
that  which  is  present  in  the  inmost  depth  of  the 
human  soul — it  has  to  be  won  ever  anew  in  human 
life,  and  ever  anew  it  has  to  be  sought,  struggled  for, 
and  perfected.  Thus  the  fact  becomes  a  task ;  the 
possession  becomes  a  problem  ;  and  with  the  varied 
differences  of  the  points  of  departure,  the  one  and 
same  life  can  include  certainty  and  doubt,  calm  and 
tempest,  bliss  and  sorrow. 

Thus,  through  and  through,  religion  proves  itself  a 
kingdom  of  opposites.  When  it  steps  out  of  such 
opposites,  it  destroys  without  a  doubt  the  turbid 
evanescence  of  ordinary  commonplace  life,  and  separ- 
ates clearly  the  lights  and  shadows  from  one  another. 
It  sets  our  life  between  the  sharpest  contrasts,  and 
engenders  the  most  powerful  feelings  and  the  most 
mighty  movements  ;  it  shows  the  dark  abyss  in  our 
nature,  but  also  shows  illumined  peaks  ;  it  opens  out 
infinite  tasks,  and  brings  to  an  awakening  ever  a  new 
life  in  its  movement  against  the  ordinary  self.  It 
does  not  render  our  existence  lighter,  but  it  makes  it 
richer,  more  eventful,  and  greater ;  it  enables  man  to 
experience  cosmic  problems  within  his  own  soul  in 
order  to  struggle;  for  a  new  world,  and,  indeed,  in 
order  to  gain  such  a  genuine  world  as  his  own 
existence. 

n.   The  Proof  a  ml  Conformation  of  Religion 

(a)  Religion  and  Science.  We  have  hitherto 
followed  the  main  lines  of  our  investigation  without 
viewing  the  side-paths,  and  without  discovering  the 


£44  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

relationship  of  our  material  to  the  remaining  world 
of  thought  as  that  world  is  represented  by  science. 
It  is  impossible  for  us  to  withdraw  entirely  from  this 
task  and  to  pass  silently  by  the  facts  which,  at  all 
times,  have  come  to  the  surface  in  connection  with 
religion,  and  which  have  discovered  a  concealed  con- 
tradiction. And  this  they  have  done  often  in  no 
spirit  of  light-hearted  jest,  but  in  deep  seriousness ; 
for  the  facts  of  science  have  struggled  against  religion 
because  science  considered  that  religion  was  a  fal- 
sification of  reality  and  a  disfigurement  of  life. 
Science  and  religion  often  appear  as  sworn  enemies ; 
each  develops  a  truth  out  of  its  own  province,  and 
each  can  present  only  its  own  truth  ;  each  traces  out 
an  image  of  reality,  and  these  images  seem  to  ex- 
clude one  another.  The  one  seizes  special  experiences 
of  humanity,  and  indicates  from  this  point  as  its  ruling 
centre  all  the  spaciousness  of  the  All.  The  other 
holds  itself  fast  to  a  Whole,  and  interprets  out  of 
this  all  the  content  of  human  life.  Religion  is 
inclined  to  reduce  science  to  a  soulless  sphere ; 
whilst  science  easily  interprets  religion  as  anthropo- 
morphism— as  an  illegitimate  inner  mirroring  of  the 
reality  through  human  presentations  and  interests. 
The  attained  objectivity  of  science  appears  to  religion 
as  cold  and  unfeeling;  whilst  the  particular  inward- 
ness of  life  appears  to  science  as  subjective  exaggera- 
tion and  fancy.  Religion  does  not  believe  itself  able 
to  guard  its  independence  without  the  creation  of  a 
knowing-organ  in  belief,  and  even  with  this  it  meets 
with  the  hardest  contradiction,  and  falls  often  within 
its  own  province  to  the  boundary  between  knowledge 
and  belief  where  all  kinds  of  entanglements  prevail. 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       245 

The  adherents  of  religion  are  at  variance  themselves  ; 
some  draw  the  ideal  word  of  religion  quite  close  to 
knowledge,  whilst  others  separate  most  pointedly 
knowledge  and  belief.  Thus  the  struggle  surges 
hither  and  thither  through  the  centuries  and  the 
millenniums,  but  each  situation  is  not  well  understood 
without  the  historical  connections.  The  defence  of 
religion  to-day  stands  under  the  power  of  the  rebound 
from  the  intellectualism  which  had  checked  the  ideal 
world  of  religion  for  a  long  time.  From  the  beginning, 
the  doctrine  of  the  Christian  Church  was  interweaved 
strongly  with  intellectualism  ;  in  the  Middle  Ages  the 
intellect  served  less  as  a  foundation  than  as  a  check, 
and,  in  the  period  of  the  Aufkldrung,  science  disen- 
gaged itself  from  all  external  authority  and  believed 
itself  able  to  develop  the  Spiritual  Life  as  well  as 
religion  out  of  itself,  and  speculation  heightened  and 
ennobled  such  an  undertaking.  Now,  at  least  in  the 
opinion  of  our  day,  speculation  has  collapsed,  and  the 
insufficiency  of  intellectualism  has  appeared  with 
piercing  clearness;  we  not  only  mistrust  the  ability 
of  the  applied  intellect,  but  it  seems  to  us  to  rob  us 
as  well  of  a  religion  of  true  immediacy  and  inspiration. 
Therefore  we  posit  ourselves  entirely  on  the  other 
side,  and  in  the  founding  of  religion  put  the  intellect 
in  a  secondary  place,  and  even  partially  disconnect  it. 
Thus  we  obtain  the  turn  to  feeling  —to  the  explana- 
tion of  religion  as  merely  an  a/fair  of  "  personal  "  life, 
and  to  the  attempt  to  derive  the  religious  content 
from  judgments  of  values,  etc.  Such  a  course  appears 
natural  enough,  and  has  sonic  amount  of  truth  in  its 
favour;  but  it  is  afflicted  with  a  strong  one-sidedness, 

and  aims  to  accommodate  itself  to  such  a  retrogression. 


i>46  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

Religion  in  reality  dare  not  isolate  itself  from  the 
universal  world  of  ideas.  It  dare  not  do  this  for 
its  own  sake.  Its  vocation  throughout  is  essentially 
and  indispensably  to  bring  forth  the  final  and  all- 
encompassing  truth  ;  and  it  cannot  possibly  be  one 
thing  by  the  side  of  other  things,  for  it  must  be  the 
soul  of  the  Whole.  But  how  could  religion  verify 
itself  as  such  without  occupying  itself  in  a  funda- 
mental manner  with  the  total-world  of  ideas  ? 
Unless  it  does  this,  not  only  does  its  truth  remain 
set  in  painful  doubt,  but  through  such  an  isolation 
the  danger  menaces  its  content ;  and  thus  the  con- 
tent is  unable  to  free  itself  sufficiently  from  the  petty- 
human  mode  and  from  selfishness ;  for  in  the  midst 
of  all  the  waves  and  bubblings  of  feeling,  and  in  the 
midst  of  all  the  agitation  of  the  individual,  the  con- 
tent wins  too  little  of  a  spiritual  substance,  and,  con- 
sequently, exercises  too  little  transforming  energy  on 
the  whole  human  situation.  Such  a  substance  is 
attainable  only  in  the  wrestling  from  a  Whole  to  a 
Whole.  Religion,  however,  undertakes  this  feat, 
and,  consequently,  comes  to  some  kind  of  agreement 
with  science  concerning  the  Yea  and  the  Nay  of 
things. 

Whether  such  an  agreement  is  possible  depends 
before  all  on  a  more  correct  wording  of  the  meaning 
of  science  and  religion.  Such  a  meaning  alone  can 
decide  whether  what  appeared  at  the  first  glance  an 
irreconcilable  conflict  can  be  brought  to  a  happy 
settlement.  Let  us  see  first  of  all  what  the  religion 
of  the  Spiritual  Life  for  which  we  contend  signifies 
concerning  the  whole  of  reality,  in  order  that  we 
may  try  to  discover  the  method  of  proof.     Here,  an 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION        247 

independent  Spiritual  Life  superior  to  the  world  is 
asserted  as  the  ground  and  kernel  of  all  reality. 
The  Spiritual  Life  can  be  autonomous  only  as  a  total- 
life — as  an  inner  connection ;  but  the  superiority  to 
the  world  reaches  the  level  of  self-reliance  not  after 
the  event  of  becoming  superior  to  the  world,  but, 
according  to  the  whole  of  our  investigation,  this 
self-reliance  carries  such  a  superiority  in  itself,  and 
proves  it  through  its  own  development  over  against 
a  very  different  kind  of  world.  This  Absolute 
Spiritual  Life  signifies  not  an  isolated  province,  but 
wills  to  be  the  foundation  and  the  apex  of  all  reality. 
But  this  cannot  be  asserted  without  relegating  nature, 
and,  most  of  all,  the  near  ordinary  existence,  to  a 
subsidiary  world — to  a  lower  level.  There  is  no 
religion  without  an  analysis  of  the  reality  and  with- 
out stepping  beyond  bare  nature,  for  an  immanent 
religion  can  announce  and  command  only  a  painful 
weakness  and  a  halfness  of  thought.  But  through  such 
a  turn  as  we  have  already  seen  the  whole  reality 
gains  an  inner  connection  and  a  depth.  Even  the 
movement  of  our  world  appears,  at  least  in  its  decisive 
phases,  not  as  a  simple  development  of  the  higher  out 
of  the  lower,  but  as  a  further  driving-power  out  of 
the  Whole  of  the  All.  Through  such  a  turn  to  the 
world,  religion  unavoidably  meets  science,  and  the 
meeting  of  the  two  becomes  quite  early  a  collision. 
Religion  not  only  holds  certain  assertions  over  against 
those  of  science,  but  works  Cor  their  promulgation, 
furthers  the  treatment  of  the  world-problem,  and  thus 
gets  itself  saturated  with  the  efforts  and  objections  of 
science.  Religion  is  an  irreconcilable  enemy  of  the 
naturalism    which    sets    up    nature    as    the    whole    of 


•is  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

reality,  and  which  treats  the  spiritual  world  as  a  bare 
epiphenomenon  ;  it  is,  too,  an  enemy  of  the  history 
which  is  unable  to  overcome  the  mere  flux  of  time, 
and  consequently  unable  to  climb  above  the  relativity 
of  the  scientific  view  to  an  eternal  and  absolute  truth  ; 
and  it  is  finally  an  enemy  of  the  psychology  which 
resolves  the  life  of  the  soul  into  elements  of  the 
lowest  common  denominator,  and  which  thus  is  not 
able  to  bring  forth  an  independent  Spiritual  Life. 
In  its  connection  with  all  these,  religion  develops  a 
thorough-going  affirmation,  and,  indeed,  an  aggressive 
character ;  it  prescribes,  with  a  strong  decision,  a 
definite  track  for  thought  and  life  ;  and  he  who  seeks 
with  special  zeal  to  weaken  the  fact  that  religion  itself 
is  able  to  sustain  a  joyous  and  friendly  disposition 
towards  the  most  varied  expressions  of  thought, 
shows  a  dimness  of  his  own  mind  and  a  weakness  of 
his  own  character.  No  energetic  Yea  without  a 
decisive  Nay  must  hold  valid,  especially  for  religion 
with  its  assertion  of  the  final  kernel  and  meaning  of 
reality.  Religion  is  intolerant,  and  must  be  intoler- 
ant, not  against  men — for  every  man  is  an  infinity,  and 
thus  far  supersedes  all  forms  and  confessions — but 
against  a  shallow  course  of  thought  and  the  hollow- 
ness  of  its  egotistical  nature. 

Upon  what,  then,  does  religion — meeting  with  so 
many  high  demands — "  ground  "  its  own  rights,  and 
by  what  means  does  it  verify  its  own  truth  ?  It  deals 
with  a  unique  fundamental  truth,  viz.  with  the 
reality  of  an  Absolute  Spiritual  Life  within  our  own 
circle.  Evidently  such  a  Life  does  not  allow  itself  to 
be  born  out  of  individual  data,  whether  of  nature  or 
of  history  ;    it  does  not  allow  itself  to  be  evolved  out 


THE  FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       249 

of  the  natural  world.  It  is  only  within  the  Life- 
process  itself,  as  its  own  foundation  and  further 
development,  that  it  may  be  brought  forth.  Con- 
sequently, it  deals  not  so  much  with  the  seeking  for 
new  things  as  with  the  discovering  of  the  new  in  the 
things  we  already  know ;  it  deals  not  so  much  with 
ready-made  results,  but  with  the  plunging  into  the 
existing  movement  of  a  current ;  it  aims  not  at  dis- 
covering a  world  already  existing  merely  by  the  side 
of  our  present  world,  but  at  securing  for  itself  the 
depth  of  the  reality  which  will  compel  our  present 
world  to  sink  to  a  secondary  level. 

The  decisive  thing  in   connection  with  all  this   is 
the  advance  of  life  itself.     The  act  must  precede  the 
proof ;  the  reality  of  the  representative  act  transmits 
the  main  proof  of  religion.      Individual  propositions 
or  performances  are  not  alone  here  in  question,  but 
the  possession  of  the  Spiritual  Life  as  a  Whole,  as  in- 
dependent,   as    superior   to   the    world,    and    as   our 
adopted  situation    in  such  a  life.      What    is    it   now 
that  drives  the  man  hither?     Nothing  other  than  an 
acknowledgment  of  the    Spiritual    Life   as    his   own 
nature,  and  the  placing  of  the  centre  of  gravity  of  his 
life  and  existence  in  this.     As  soon  as  this  happens, 
and  as  soon  as  we  possess  an   inward   relationship  to 
the  world  and  to  ourselves,  the  man  can  do  no  other 
than  hind  together  the  Spiritual  Life  as  a  Whole  and 
as  a  self-reliant  life ;  and  thus  he  is  bound  to  reach 
an  inwardness  which  will  make  clear  the  contrasts  of 
life   as   well   as   his  own   superiority  over  against    the 
environing    world.      The  decisive   main    proof  is  and 
remains   in  the    fact    that    an    autonomous    Spiritual 
Life    arises   in    man  and    humanity,  and    that    we  are 


250  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

able  to  discover  our  deepest  being  and  construct  our 
new  world  through  a  process  of  selection  and  rejec- 
tion as  participators  in  such  a  Life.  This  proof, 
however,  needs  no  minute  adjustment,  for  it  enters 
into  every  soul  in  the  form  of  immediacy  whenever 
such  a  soul  struggles  to  step  out  of  the  bondage  of 
the  world,  struggles  to  create  its  own  laws  of  ascent, 
and  to  enter  into  its  true  personal  life.  Through  this 
the  life  gains  an  absolute  certainty.  Next  to  this  in 
importance  stands  the  fact  that  the  corroboration 
results  through  the  demonstration  that  the  Spiritual 
Life  is  barren  in  its  ramifications  unless  it  roots  itself 
as  a  Whole  in  an  Absolute  Life ;  for  there  is  neither 
art  nor  science,  neither  right  nor  morality,  possible 
without  the  fundamental  truth  which  comes  to 
expression  in  religion.  The  Spiritual  Life  is  not  a 
Whole  in  its  ordinary  existence,  but  is  a  Whole  only 
as  an  elevated  arrangement  of  the  things  which 
present  themselves  within  and  without.  But  when 
it  is  not  a  Whole,  it  inevitably  breaks  in  pieces  in 
the  isolated  positions  of  life.  Such  a  state  of  affairs 
concerning  the  Spiritual  Life  is  a  testimony  to  the 
truth  of  religion.  A\re  are  able  to  give  up  religion, 
but  we  must  give  up  at  the  same  time  our  Spiritual 
Life,  the  spiritual  character  of  our  existence,  and  our 
spiritual  individuality.  But  is  anybody  able  to 
abandon  religion  so  completely  as  all  this  ? 

Such  a  condition  of  things  makes  it  impossible  to 
win  anyone  through  the  mere  intellect  to  religion, 
for  the  problem  lies  deeper,  and  the  mode  of  in- 
tellectual activity — right  down  to  the  heart  of  the 
problem — depends  on  the  total  Life-process.  He 
who  places  himself  in  the  position  of  a  mere  spectator 


THE    FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       251 

of  the  great  world  and  accepts  his  life  as  an  assigned 
kind  of  fate,  he  who  undertakes  no  struggle  concerning 
a  "  becoming "  independence  and  concerning  an  in- 
ward relationship  to  things,  cannot  take  into  himself 
the  Whole  with  all  its  problems,  cannot  possess  a 
participation  in  a  cosmic  life,  and  is  not  able  to  carry 
forward  the  energetic  movement  of  religion.  But  he 
who  has  discovered  an  inner  relationship  with  the 
world  and  with  his  own  self,  he  who  is  held  fast  by 
the  inner  movement  of  life  and  is  led  to  an  inner 
union  with  reality,  obtains  a  new  insight  of  reality 
and  becomes  fully  certain  of  the  truth  of  this  reality 
— far  more  certain  than  of  the  axioms  of  the  sciences. 
For  with  such  axioms  the  matter  deals  with  detached 
portions  of  life  and  of  the  work  of  thought ;  but  in 
religion  the  dealing  is  concerning  the  vindication  of 
life  as  a  A\rhole.  Nowhere  more  than  here  does  the 
movement  itself  prove  the  reality  of  the  hypothesis 
from  which  it  issues. 

Through  such  a  consolidation  in  the  deepest 
"  ground "  of  life,  religion  can  confidently  look 
forward  to  an  understanding  with  science.  This  is 
certainly  not  so  simple  as  it  seems,  for  we  witness 
often  to-day  a  pointed  dualistic  mode  of  thought. 
This  mode  of  thought  believes  itself  able  to  solve  the 
problem  after  a  fashion,  but  rather  far  more  slums  it, 
and  it  presents  us  with  a  notion  that  science  concerns 
itself  solely  with  the  world  of  experience,  and,  along 
with  this,  that  it  lias  to  contract  itself  into  a  mere 
relative  knowledge.  From  this  point  of  view  religion 
is  supposed  to  deal  with  final  "grounds"  and  "ends" 
alone;  thus  both  spheres  of  science  and  religion  fall 
entirely  outside  one  another,   and   only  an  entangle- 


252  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

ment  can  issue  in  any  attempt  to  bring  both  nearer 
to  one  another.  Either  science  transforms  its  empirical 
constructions  into  metaphysical  constructions,  as  has 
actually  happened  with  our  speculative  scientific 
investigations,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  religion  touches 
the  province  of  science.  All  this  contains  much  that 
is  true,  but  it  does  not  exhaust  the  facts.  Science  is 
not  a  summation  of  rules,  but  it  develops  a 
characteristic  course  of  thought,  and  this  course  of 
thought  can  very  well  come  into  conflict  with  religion, 
or  rather,  with  religion  of  a  special  historical  kind. 
Religion,  however,  cannot  explain  the  standard 
which  it  accepts  and  to  which  it  brings  its  proofs 
without  coming  to  a  settlement  with  the  whole  of 
science. 

This  problem  receives  a  driving-power  especially 
through  history.  The  traditional  kind  of  religion 
and  also  of  Christianity  has  grown  in  intimate 
connection  with  a  view  of  the  world  which  has  been 
destroyed  by  modern  investigation.  Indeed,  as  was 
shown  in  the  introductory  part  of  this  book,  it  is  not 
only  destroyed  in  individual  places  but  in  its  whole 
mode  of  thought.  The  older  mode  of  thought  appears 
to  modern  investigation  as  a  thorough  anthropomor- 
phism— as  a  transmission  of  human  greatness  into 
the  environing  world.  Modern  science,  through  its 
discovery  of  inflexible  laws  and  through  the  causal 
restriction  of  all  phenomena,  has  rendered  the  old 
view  impossible  ;  it  has  driven  the  soul  out  of  such 
a  view  of  the  world  and  threatens  to  do  the  same 
in  the  province  of  religion.  Thus  positivism  especially, 
with  its  three  stages  of  religious,  metaphysical,  and 
positive  thought,  formulates  such  a  plan,  and  attempts 


THE    FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       253 

to  place  religion  on  one  side  as  a  childish  stage  of 
human  development  which  has  no  right  whatever  in 
our  day.  Can  we  deny  that  such  a  view  reaches,  too, 
far  beyond  the  special  circle  of  positivism,  and  that 
a  great  deal  of  the  mental  atmosphere  of  our  day 
views  religion  as  a  stage  on  the  road  to  be  passed 
over  by  the  general  movement  of  humanity  and  its 
new  view  of  the  world  ?  Now,  the  protest  has  to  be 
made  that  religion,  in  its  inmost  nature,  is  not  a  view 
of  the  world  but  the  evolution  of  a  new  life — an 
ascent  to  a  new  stage  of  reality.  But  such  a  new 
life  carries  convictions  in  itself  of  the  whole  of  reality, 
and  these  convictions,  together  with  the  whole  of  the 
standard,  must  somehow  be  scientifically  vindicated 
against  such  a  positivistic  course  of  thought.  Such 
a  vindication  is  really  to  be  found,  and  it  is  a  vindi- 
cation which  makes  clear  that  it  itself  marches  in 
front  against  the  pettiness  in  human  nature  ;  it  is  a 
vindication  that  the  development  of  the  physical 
and  mental  sciences,  viewed  from  within,  signifies 
the  conclusions  of  mental  constructions  ;  and,  finally, 
it  vindicates  that  if  something  is  lost  on  the  one  side, 
something  of  incomparably  greater  value  is  won  on 
the  other  side. 

Philosophy  shows  us  that  reality  does  not  exist 
merely  at  hand  for  us  ;  it  exists  only  in  so  far  as 
it  becomes  our  own  experience.  Philosophy  also 
shows  that  ;i  scientific  and  mental  configuration  is 
not  reached  unless  a  new  outline  of  reality  is  traced 
out  in  the  Whole  ;  and  shows  that  a  new  foundation 
is  won  only  when  there  has  resulted  a  new  conclusion 
of  the  manifold  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  the 
mind.      Thus    nature    becomes   a  mental    occurrence 


264  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

and  11  subject  of  scientific  work  only  in  so  far  as  it 
touches  us  with  individual  impressions  not  merely 
from  the  outside,  and  only  when  these  impressions 
are  fastened  together  into  a  total- view  ;  and  such  can 
happen  only  from  within  through  our  mental  organ- 
isation. History  in  the  human  and  mental  sense,  as 
has  so  often  been  shown,  originates  in  no  way  through 
a  mere  succession  of  events  and  an  accumulation  of 
effects,  but  only  when  a  superior  standard  experiences, 
comprehends,  and  values  the  phenomena  through  a 
separation  of  the  essential  from  the  non-essential. 
Our  own  life  of  the  soul  could  not  be  surveyed  and 
brought  to  a  unity  did  we  not  in  the  kernel  of  our 
nature  stand  above  the  bare  co-existence  of  acts,  and 
had  not  this  co-existence  a  background  for  itself. 
In  all  this  an  inwardness  of  a  mental  and  spiritual 
kind  develops  itself,  which  is  all  along  the  line 
different  from  the  merely  subjective  nature.  The 
subjective  nature  remains  under  the  power  of  the 
opposites  of  subject  and  object,  but  the  mental  and 
spiritual  nature  seeks  to  overcome  this  opposition 
through  a  supreme  formation  of  reality.  The  former 
adapts  itself  to  the  mere-human ;  the  latter  adapts 
itself  to  the  Spiritual  Life,  and  through  it  alone  can 
man  possess  an  elevated  self-life.  Evidently  such 
a  turn  from  the  naive  situation  of  life  is  no  mere 
natural  growth  but  an  inverted  order  of  things,  and 
this  naive  situation  of  life  appears  now  a  kind  of 
Ptolemaic  conduct  of  life  ;  for,  instead  of  viewing  life 
from  without  within,  it  is  now  viewed  from  within 
without. 

In  all  this  there  is  a  vindication  of  a  standard  of  an 
independent    Spiritual    Life,   as   is   represented    and 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       255 

made  a  main  fact  by  religion ;  and  again,  religious 
history  appears  in  a  new  light.  True,  the  early 
anthropomorphic  forms  get  more  and  more  dissolved, 
but  in  their  place  a  spiritual  form  is  gained  and  the 
movement  to  the  spiritualising  of  religion  is  not 
imposed  from  without,  but  arises  mainly  from  religion's 
own  inward  longing  after  truth.  Thus,  religion 
proceeds  from  external  observances  to  inner  religious- 
ness, from  the  self-conservation  of  the  natural  man 
to  a  salvation  of  spiritual  values  and  a  redemption 
of  the  soul,  from  a  duty  towards  isolated  aspects  of 
the  Spiritual  Life  to  the  raising  of  such  a  Life  as 
a  Whole.  The  positivistic  mode  of  thought  sees 
in  this  the  loss  and  not  the  gain ;  it  fails  to  see 
the  rise  of  a  spiritual  inwardness  over  against  a 
subjective  one,  because  such  a  mode  of  thought 
directs  its  attention  to  external  results  and  not  to 
inward  experiences,  and  because,  over  its  dealings 
with  the  results  of  the  Spiritual  Life,  it  forgets 
the  Spiritual  Life  itself.  The  logical  conclusion  of 
such  a  mode  of  thought  is  to  resolve  man  into  a 
mere  machine — a  complicated  reckoning-machine — 
and  such  machines  can  be  constructed.  Only  the 
mystery  would  remain,  how  such  a  machine  could 
produce  the  great  revolution  from  a  naive  to  a 
scientific,  and  from  a  natural  to  a  spiritual,  condition 
of  life. 

So  far,  however,  as  science  works  out  t lie  central 
phenomenon  of  the  Spiritual  Life,  and  illumines  the 
world  from  such  a  standpoint,  it  becomes  speculation. 

Thus,    religion    cannot     lack   such   speculation    for   its 

own  scientific  development.     Bui  speculation  needs 

religion  still  more  substantially.     For  the  aim  of  spec  u 


256  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

lation  is  futile  from  its  very  foundation,  and  becomes 
a  vain  assumption,  unless  there  exists  a  hope  of 
finding,  in  contrast  with  merely  human  presentations, 
a  universally-valid  thought.  But  how  could  such 
a  thought  be  possible  without  the  immanence  of  an 
Absolute  Life  in  our  circle  ?  So  that  from  of  old 
religion  and  speculation  have  been  in  close  contact ; 
in  all  speculation  a  religious  element  is  easily  to  be 
discovered  ;  and  religion  lost  in  breadth  and  depth 
whenever  it  placed  all  speculation  on  one  side.  True, 
with  the  divergence  in  their  starting-points,  quarrels 
were  not  wanting,  but  they  were  quarrels  between 
friends  who,  in  all  their  differences,  strove  for  a  final 
mutual  understanding,  and  who  could  not  do  without 
each  other.  Speculation  and  religion  presuppose 
an  inner  movement  of  life ;  this  movement  cannot 
be  forced  upon  anyone,  but  it  can  be  shown  that, 
without  it,  no  Spiritual  Life  in  the  Whole  and  no 
genuine  spirituality  are  possible.  The  words  of 
Plotinus  are  valid  in  connection  with  all  this :  "  The 
hoctrine  reaches  as  far  as  the  road  and  its  course ; 
but  the  intuition  is  the  possession  of  him  alone  who 
chooses  to  see." 

(/3)  General  Comiderations. — If  religion  first  and 
foremost  deals  with  the  inward  ascent  of  life  to  a  Whole 
— with  our  apprehension  of  the  Spiritual  Life  as  our 
real  self — then  the  inward  inertness  of  man  consti- 
tutes the  strongest  resistance  and  the  most  stubborn 
hindrance  experienced  by  religion.  Such  inertness  is 
satisfied  with  scattered  fragments  of  life  ;  it  remains  in 
a  mere  external  relationship  to  reality,  and  undertakes 
no  struggle  for  its  appropriation.  Accordingly,  in  a 
time  of  predominant  expansion  as  is  the  present,  it 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       257 

is  easy  to  understand  how  religion  may  often  appear 
as  a  tissue  of  illusions  ;  with  the  absence  of  a  move- 
ment to  a  Whole,  the  opposite  opinion  would  be 
surprising.  But  this  inner  inertness  of  life  would 
never  have  stepped  forth  with  such  self-com- 
placency and  made  a  virtue  out  of  the  calamity 
unless  there  went  hand  in  hand  with  it  a  great  con- 
fusion of  thought,  which  believed  in  the  possibility 
of  solving  the  essential  spiritual  problems  without  a 
movement  to  the  Whole,  and  hence  without  religion. 
It  is  remarkable  how  often  men  here  turn  against 
religion  that  which,  without  the  independence  and 
superiority  of  the  Spiritual  Life,  as  championed  by 
religion,  becomes  simply  untenable.  Thus,  morality 
is  often  supposed  to  serve  as  a  substitute  for  religion, 
although  a  morality  without  a  new  world  would  be 
more  inconceivable  than  religion  itself;  thus,  one 
flutters  to  and  fro  towards  an  "  enthusiasm  for 
humanity"  without  giving  the  term  "humanity" 
any  kind  of  spiritual  content ;  thus,  one  appeals  to 
the  immediacy  of  personality  and  of  personal  life  as 
if  personality  could  have  a  meaning  and  value  without 
the  awakening  of  a  new  world  at  this  particular 
spot.  Personality  is  either  an  empty  and  mislead- 
ing term  or  a  confession  of  a  world  of  independent 
spirituality. 

The  Either-Or  truly  present  here — independent 
spirituality  or  no  spirituality — may  veil  itself  from  us 
lor  a  Long  time,  because  we  live  in  a  spiritual  atmo- 
sphere which  has  developed  under  the  mighty  influence 
of  religion.  For  by  means  of  this  atmosphere  the 
contention  hostile  to  religion  gets  tmperceivedly  sup- 
plemented, and  thus  those  formations  existing  in  our 

17 


258  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

midst  are  credited  as  such  with  what  only  the  original 
energy  of  the  Whole  is  able  to  accomplish.  There 
arises  thus  the  appearance  as  though  it  were  possible 
to  retain  in  the  subject  and  the  consequence  what  has 
been  given  up  in  the  substance  and  the  foundation, 
and  as  though  the  mere  man  were  able  to  accomplish 
what  man  can  achieve  only  within  spiritual  connec- 
tions. Such  a  mode  of  life  may  even  appear,  in  the 
beginning,  as  a  gain  in  freedom,  freshness,  and 
immediacy.  But  this  can  proceed  only  for  a  time, 
for  life  itself  will  engender  a  reaction.  For  the 
more  those  survivals  from  the  older  formations  of 
life  are  driven  out,  the  more  all  inward  connections 
slip  away,  until  the  man  finally  stands  on  nothing 
broader  than  his  own  subjectivity ;  thus  the  move- 
ment breaks  up  more  and  more,  and  the  life  becomes 
emptier  inwardly  and  as  a  whole,  and  more  and 
more  individuals  set  themselves  at  variance  with  each 
other,  and  the  scene  becomes  a  Babylonian  confusion 
of  tongues.  Evidences  of  all  this  are  sufficiently  at 
hand,  but  in  the  meantime  the  struggle  against 
religion  and  substantial  spirituality  may  appear  still 
as  a  pleasant  occupation  and,  indeed,  as  a  struggle 
for  freedom.  After  this  comes  the  reaction,  and 
brings  new  dispositions  and  strivings  into  the  life  of 
humanity — perhaps  it  happens  through  painful  up- 
heavals— and  then  our  problem  enters  into  a  new 
phase  of  universal  history.  For  the  history  of  the 
world  is  mostly  wont  to  prove  things  in  such  an 
indirect  manner  as  this. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  the  direct  proof  which 
religion  transmits  through  its  effective  stirring  and 
elevation  of  life  is  not  to    be   misjudged.     Religion 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       259 

does  not  so  much  add  something  particular  to  life  as 
that  it  effects  an  integration,  a  clear  discrimination, 
and  a  liberation  of  what  already  lies  in  the  total- 
life,  but  which,  without  such  concentration,  is  unable 
to  find  its  own  self.  It  is  through  this  concentra- 
tion that  the  Spiritual  Life  first  gains  a  durable 
kernel,  and  emancipates  itself  from  the  admixture 
of  the  existential  state  in  order  to  construct  a  char- 
acteristic world,  and  to  become  a  new  starting-point 
of  life. 

This  integration  into  a  Whole,  and  this  eleva- 
tion to  action  of  the  whole  man,  may  appear  less 
important  and  urgent  so  long  as  human  existence 
is  conceived  to  be  free  from  acute  conflicts  and 
in  process  of  secure  advance.  However,  as  soon 
as  difficult  entanglements  set  in,  the  ascent  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  has  to  overcome  enormous  obstacles, 
and  is,  through  these,  threatened  with  paralysis,  a 
return  to  the  Whole  and  an  actuation  of  the 
energy  of  the  Whole  become  indispensable.  Such 
obstacles  appear  clearly  enough,  so  that  there  can 
be  no  apology  and  no  doubt  for  the  necessity  of 
religion. 

Religion  finds  a  main  proof  of  its  truth  in  the  fact 
that  it  forms  the  indispensable  culmination  of  the 
total  Spiritual  Life;  and  although  man  can  be 
spiritually  active  here  and  there,  he  can  never  take 
up  the  Spiritual  Life  as  a  Whole,  and  transform  it 
into  his  own  act,  without  religion.  We  have  shown 
sufficiently  the  general  outlines  of  this  fact,  and  it 
remains  for  us  now  to  show  how  all  the  main 
separate  movements  which  endow  our  life  with 
a    spiritual    character    attain   to    no    completion    and 


260  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

indeed,  lose  their  anchor  and  foundation  if  the 
turn  to  religion  does  not  lead  them  to  a  Whole,  to 
Principles,  and  to  the  Absolute ;  so  that  finally  the 
truth  and  the  right  of  our  Spiritual  Life  hang  on 
such  a  turning-point.  Since,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
specifically  religious  conceptions  permeate  the  whole 
of  life,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  movements  which 
issue  from  that  whole  ever-increasingly  demand 
an  elevation  to  a  principle,  and  hence  a  turn  to 
religion,  a  firm  interweaving  of  religion  with  the 
whole  of  the  spiritual  effort  is  accomplished.  Thus, 
the  whole  of  this  effort  speaks  and  works  for 
religion ;  the  more  energetically  the  Spiritual  Life 
develops  itself,  the  more  it  becomes  conscious  of 
the  opposition  of  its  substantiality  to  a  world  of 
appearance  ;  and  the  mightier  the  impetus  to  religion 
becomes,  the  more  certain  becomes  the  truth  of 
religion  itself. 

(7)  Special  Pathways. — If  we  now  pursue  the  pro- 
blem through  the  ramifications  of  life,  and  seek  to 
demonstrate  that  the  main  movements  of  life  point 
toward  a  religion  of  a  universal  kind,  and  that 
without  religion  all  movements  must  collapse,  re- 
ligion is  taken  by  us  throughout  not  merely  as 
the  end  of  a  movement  existing  prior  to  itself, 
but  also  as  this  movement's  fundamental  presupposi- 
tion ;  since  that  spiritual  effort  could  not  originate 
without  the  presence  of  the  Absolute  Life  which 
manifests  itself  in  religion.  But  since  religion 
clearly  reveals  that  presupposition  and  the  inter- 
connection of  life,  and  bids  us  incorporate  them  more 
energetically  in  our  activities,  it  will  work  for  the 
illumination,  consolidation,  and  elevation  of  all  the 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       261 

remaining  life.  This  fact  will  appear  clearer  in 
connection  with  the  following  special  points. 

(aa)  The  Aspiration  after  Infinity. — The  man  of 
experience  finds  himself  enclosed  firmly  on  all 
sides ;  he  is,  as  a  mere  portion  of  a  causal  order, 
conditioned  and  hounded  in  his  aims  and  energies  ; 
the  duration  of  his  life  has  but  a  brief  span  to  run, 
and  he  must  acknowledge  himself  usually  as  a  finite 
existence.  And  yet  as  a  tremendous  resistance  to 
all  this,  his  Spiritual  Life  is  filled  with  a  longing  for 
Infinity.  The  idea  of  Infinity  signifies  not  merely 
that  an  immeasurable  expanse  ever  lies  by  the  side 
of  the  circle  which  we  traverse.  For  such  an 
"  outside  "  need  trouble  us  but  little,  because  it  does 
not  explain  the  stirring  and  forward-driving  energy 
which  lives  within  the  thoughts  of  Infinity.  Such 
thoughts  evidently  bear  witness  on  the  whole  that 
Infinity  does  not  emerge  beyond  the  bounds  of  life, 
but  that  it  belongs  to  man  from  the  beginning;  it  is 
the  clash  within  us  between  the  finite  and  the 
Infinite  which  brings  forth  such  effects,  and  it  is  only 
out  of  this  point  that  the  idea  and  the  feeling  of  the 
sublime  explain  themselves,  for  they  do  not  originate 
from  without,  but  are  an  original  testimony  of  the 
soul. 

The  movement  towards  the  Infinite  proceeds  not 
only  into  the  quantitative,  but  far  more  into  the 
qualitative.  It  is  not  the  surface  of  reality  which 
suffices  us.  hut  far  more  do  we  appropriate  its  whole 
depth.  All  the  effort  after  final  ends  and  all- 
inclusive  aims,  all  investigation  concerning  the  Why 
of  Whys,  all  the  longing  for  perfection  and  the 
highest  blessedness  over  against  the  mere  satisfaction 


26S  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

of  the  given  situation — what  is  all  this  but  an 
evidence  of  the  depth  of  reality.  Everywhere  in 
connection  with  the  idea  of  the  Infinite  we  find 
ourselves  in  danger  of  losing  ourselves  in  the 
pathless  expanse  and  the  danger  of  an  over-strain  of 
human  ability,  but  we  also  find  a  mighty  ascent  of 
our  nature,  a  tracing  of  tracks  and  a  progress  upon 
them,  and  a  challenge  to  battle  against  all  the  narrow 
and  petty-human  modes  of  life  which  have  now 
become  an  intolerable  barrier.  Such  a  longing — 
partly  revealed  and  partly  concealed — was  somehow 
present  in  the  works  which  resulted  in  the  great 
transformations  of  life  and  in  the  inner  progressive 
development  of  man,  so  that  the  impossible  itself 
appeared  possible  if  what  ought  to  be  reached  is 
now  in  reality  reached  ;  for  out  of  self-sufficiency  and 
timidity  nothing  great  has  ever  been  born. 

What  then  is  the  basis  of  such  a  movement?  If 
it  is  a  work  of  a  merely  human  kind,  it  can  mean  no 
more  than  a  mere  bolstering  up  of  the  self  in  one's 
own  fancy,  a  futile  presumption  of  the  self,  a  deceit- 
ful illusion.  At  the  same  time,  all  the  inner  fruits  of 
culture  and  all  that  appears  always  as  the  spiritual 
uplifting  of  man  prove  themselves  as  a  tawdry  polish 
on  old  goods  and  chattels.  Or,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  movement  has  a  deeper  foundation  in  the  inner 
presence  of  an  Absolute  Life.  If  things  are  so,  then 
it  is  religion  which  embraces  and  expresses  the  whole 
of  life.  Through  such  exertions  religion  at  the  same 
time  attaches  and  rouses  itself  to  a  striving  after 
Infinity,  and,  in  order  to  accomplish  this,  it  calls  the 
whole  soul  to  its  aid,  and  wins  a  strong  conviction 
and  character.     Thus,  in  connection  with  this  special 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       263 

point,  it  is  religion  which  brings  life  to  its  full  depth  ; 
and  what  is  imbedded  in  the  aspiration  after  Infinity 
becomes  the  evidence  of  religion. 

This  is  corroborated,  too,  by  the  experience  of 
history.  The  antique  method  of  viewing  the 
Spiritual  Life — a  method  which  allowed  largely  the 
meaning  of  religion  in  our  sense  to  remain  in  the 
background — gave  full  sovereignty  to  the  ideas  of 
extremes  and  limits  ;  the  All  is  here  limited,  and  the 
life  of  man  moves  between  fixed  aims  and  given 
energies  ;  there  is  now  no  need  to  cross  the  frontier 
into  the  Infinite,  but  far  more  there  is  present 
a  timidity  to  cross  beyond  the  natural  defined 
boundary.  When  did  the  idea  of  Infinity  gain 
acknowledgment  and  power,  and  when  did  it  step 
into  the  very  centre  of  life  itself?  It  accomplished 
this  through  the  turn  to  religion,  a  turn  which 
culminated  especially  in  the  philosophic  sense  through 
Plotinus.  Since  his  time  the  idea  lias  often  enough 
been  obscured,  but  it  has  never  been  extinguished. 
And  what  appears  to  us  new  and  great  in  modern  life 
is  indissolubly  bound  with  the  reception  of  Infinity 
into  our  own  character  and  nature.  For  whence 
otherwise  the  fixed  superiority  over  the  world— the 
fast  rooting  of  the  personality — after  which  we  at 
least  strive  for  ?  Shall  we  retreat  once  more  into  the 
old  limits  in  order  to  avoid  entering  the  pathway  of 
religion  '. 

[bb)  The  Aspiration  after  Freedom  and  Equality. 

— The  experience  of    life   shows    man    hound   on    all 

sides  and  in  constant  relationships  of  dependence, 
shows  him  hound  to  other  men,  bound  to  the  environ- 
ment, hound  to  his  own   nature.      This  subordination 


264  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

often  veils  the  consciousness  and  continues  to  exist. 
But,  at  the  same  time,  there  runs  through  humanity 
a  glowing  aspiration  after  freedom.  This  is  to  be 
found,  first  of  all,  in  the  relation  of  man  to  man  as 
the  demand  of  independence  of  each  individual  over 
against  the  human  environment,  or  of  the  independ- 
ence of  a  class  over  against  another  class.  Through 
such  a  freedom  man  seemed  to  gain  an  otherwise 
unknown  dignity  and  an  incomparably  greater 
energy ;  his  life  seemed  to  experience  an  essential 
elevation,  and  for  the  first  time  to  possess  an  original 
worth.  Thus,  the  struggle  for  freedom  was  able  to 
kindle  the  strongest  affections  and  to  make  light  of 
the  most  difficult  sacrifices. 

How  does  all  this  explain  itself,  and  how  can 
something  essentially  higher  issue  forth  from  life  if 
there  is  not  more  present  than  a  mere  rearrangement 
of  energies  within  an  enclosed  system  ?  It  explains 
itself  only  through  the  fact  that  a  new  order  of  things 
has  created  a  new  breach  of  life,  and  that  life  through 
such  a  turn  has  gained  an  originality  of  an  inward 
kind  as  well  as  a  new  content.  But  how  can  life  gain 
all  this  if  it  possesses  no  depth,  and  if  there  is  not  an 
existence  of  a  reality  for  itself?  If  the  Spiritual 
Life  fails  in  this,  what  is  there  besides  contained  in 
the  representation  of  religion  ?  History  shows, 
without  a  doubt,  the  longing  for  freedom  usually 
coupled  with  eschatological  convictions  ;  ancient 
Christianity  with  its  advocacy  of  the  freedom  of  the 
religious  conviction  {libertas  religiouis)  took  up  a 
great  universal  struggle  for  freedom  ;  out  of  the  age 
of  the  Reformation  has  the  freedom  of  our  modern 
times   gone  forth  ;  indeed,  it  seemed  as  if  no  effort 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       265 

for  freedom  could  stir  the  whole  soul  unless  it  became 
a  kind  of  religion  to  man  and  raised  him  above  mere 
ordinary  experience.  This  contention  is  valid,  too, 
concerning  the  radical  movements  of  the  present  day ; 
they  could  not  have  taken  such  a  strong  turn  against 
religion  had  it  not  been  that  they  had  moulded  them- 
selves into  some  kind  of  religion.  Whenever  the 
struggle  for  freedom  is  not  carried  by  new  ideals  of 
the  whole  life,  it  tends  quickly  to  relax  and  to  enter 
under  the  dominion  of  egoism,  be  it  egoism  of 
individuals  or  of  classes. 

But  the  aspiration  after  freedom  extends  deeper  than 
the  relationship  to  other  men  ;  it  reaches  the  funda- 
mental relationship  to  the  world  and  to  reality.  Man 
seeks  in  spiritual  activity  another  standpoint  to  things, 
and,  indeed,  to  himself,  than  is  verified  by  the  nearest- 
at-hand  experience.  In  such  a  surface-experience  all 
is  given  and  tied,  all  is  opaque  and  alien  ;  and,  further, 
the  nature  of  all  this  appears  to  man  as  something 
external  so  long  as  it  does  not  allow  itself  to  be  set  in 
his  own  act  and  there  transfigured.  And,  therefore, 
however  zealous  in  work  man  may  be,  so  long  as  he 
remains  a  mere  link  of  a  natural  chain,  so  long  will 
his  decision  fail  to  handle  the  material  which  he  takes 
up,  and  his  will  fail  to  decide  concerning  the  nature 
of  such  material  ;  but  all  the  particular  is  determined 
through  the  connection  of  the  Whole,  and  what  on  the 
surface  may  appear  as  no  more  than  a  link  of  a  chain, 
on  a  deeper  view  is  perceived  to  reach  forth  into 
Immensity. 

Why  docs  man  himself  struggle  against  the  accept- 
ance of  such  a  state  of  things  which  surround  him 
with  irresistible  intrusiveness,  and  which  incessantly 


l2(i()  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

explains  determinism  with  its  old  and  new  grounds 
as  the  only  possibility  ?  Why,  indeed,  but  because 
through  the  tying  of  man  to  sueh  a  situation  unutter- 
ably more  is  lost  than  willingly  allows  itself  to  be 
destroyed.  There  is  lost  all  inner  relation  to  reality 
through  resignation  to  the  dark  night  of  fate ;  there 
is  lost  all  inner  obligation  and,  indeed,  all  ethieal 
character  of  action  through  the  shifting  of  action  to 
an  imposed  necessity,  and,  consequently,  when  we 
reflect  on  it,  what  determinism  leaves  over  is  nothing 
more  than  an  empty  word  ;  there  is  lost  all  present 
living  consciousness,  and  the  present  is  viewed  only  as 
a  mere  result  issuing  out  of  given  premises  and  which 
contain  nothing  in  the  least  original ;  there  is  lost  all 
hope  of  sunnier  and  nobler  days  ;  and  all  the  possibility 
of  inward  renewal  for  peoples  and  times,  as  well  as  for 
the  wrhole  of  humanity,  fails,  and  thus  life  in  its  march 
becomes  more  and  more  numb  and  senile  ;  and  finally, 
there  is  lost  the  striving  to  construct  our  existence, 
through  our  own  original  activity,  out  of  the  deep 
and  out  of  a  permanent  foundation,  and  all  is  simply 
turned  into  a  piling  of  a  mechanism  upon  a  surface- 
foundation.  Accordingly,  life,  through  its  complete 
resignation  to  an  external  necessity,  loses  all  inner 
movement,  all  soul,  all  value ;  it  is  now  a  mere 
appearance  and  not  an  original  life  to  us. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  man  strives  against  all  this, 
that  he  strains  every  nerve  to  resist  such  a  destiny. 
But  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  resist  it  without  a 
transformation  of  the  whole  view  of  reality  and  of 
his  own  nature.  For  all  attempts  to  escape  to  some 
refuge  within  the  given  world  of  necessity  must  fail, 
and  such  attempts  issue  from  turbid  thoughts  as  de- 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       267 

terminism  itself  has  shown  with  convincing  power.     It 
is  the  elevation  into  a  new  world  alone  that  can  help 
us  ;  and  such  a  world  is  not  a  mere  system,  but  is  ever 
a  new  and  inner  governing  Whole  proceeding  out  of 
activity,  and  which  can  become  our  own  characteristic 
life  of  all  activity.     The  Spiritual  Life  becomes  such 
a  world  in  so  far  as  it  gains  a  full  independence  and 
engenders  out  of  itself  a  characteristic  reality.     The 
cosmic  "  becoming "  of  the  Spiritual  Life,  however, 
surmounts  all  the  capacity  of  the  mere-human,  and 
appears  to  man  as  the  dawning  of  an  Absolute  Life. 
This  has  been  a  leading  thought  of  the  whole  of  our 
investigation.     How   freedom  and  necessity  in  man 
clash  and  yet  stand  apart  is  a  question  which  does  not 
concern  us  at  this  point.     Here  the  main  point  is  that 
without  the  presence  of  a  new  world,  all  possibility  of 
freedom — all  the  transformation  of  existence  into  one's 
own  life — breaks  in  pieces,  and,  at  the  same  time,  all 
genuine  living  present  vanishes.     The  origin  of  the 
longing  itself  remains  a  mystery.     And  yet  such  a  long- 
ing moves  in  mighty  waves  over  humanity  and  has 
brought  forth   such  greatness  and   nobleness.     Thus, 
once  more,  all  this   is  religion,  and   in  it    a  general 
movement  of  life  fastens  itself  together,  and  with  it 
something  remains  which  in  the  final   resort  nobody 
can  destroy.      If,  however,  that  deepest  origin  of  the 
cllurt  of  freedom  is  taken  up  into  our  own  conviction 
and  direction  of  life,  then  all  activity  in  this  direction 
can  be  purified  and  ennobled,  then  the  individual  move- 
ments unite  themselves  more  compactly  together  so 
that  in  each  individual  position  the  whole  man  is  now 
able  to  step  into  activity.    A  long  period  of  lime  loved 

to  conceive  of  religion  and  freedom  as  set  up  pointedly 


268  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

against  one  another  and  as  irreconcilable  opponents. 
A  deeper  meaning,  however,  shows  here,  as  often 
elsewhere,  the  truth  to  be  quite  contrary  to  the 
opinion  of  particular  epochs.  Without  religion — 
religion  in  the  universal  sense — freedom  is  a  hollow 
term  ;  no  definite  freedom  can  originate  without 
religion,  and  certainly  no  religion  can  originate  with- 
out freedom. 

The  movement  towards  freedom  annexes  itself  to 
the  movement  towards  equality,  and  often  t'hey  walk 
hand  in  hand.  Experience  shows  universally  an  in- 
equality of  man  ;  even  nature  endows  individuals 
unequally  ;  culture  brings  forth  difference  after  differ- 
ence the  more  it  develops  itself ;  and  this  is  true,  too, 
of  the  newer  culture  with  its  heightened  differentiation 
of  individuals  and  its  technical  shaping  of  activity. 
The  course  of  history  itself  drops  many  differences  as 
having  become  spurious,  but  it  brings  forth  newer  and 
greater  differences,  and,  on  the  whole,  the  inequality 
is  in  a  state  of  constant  growth. 

But  over  against  the  whole  of  this  current  of  what 
actually  happens,  there  arises  and  asserts  itself  in  a 
notable  manner  a  longing  after  equality.  Is  there 
imbedded  in  all  this  merely  the  ordinary  disposition 
on  a  small  scale,  does  nothing  commanding  endure, 
and  is  all  drawn  down  to  the  ordinary  surface-level  ? 
This  cannot  be  admitted,  for  an  inequality  without 
the  presence  of  counter-effects  to  it  would  endanger 
most  seriously  the  inner  convictions  of  man,  and, 
indeed,  destroy  them  ;  it  would  become  an  intolerable 
hardship  for  that  which  commands  the  vicissitudes  of 
life  to  a  lower  plane  ;  and  it  would  lead  astray  to  a 
wayward  vanity  the  very  things  which  ought  to  have 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       269 

stood  on  the  summit  of  life.  But  how  are  we  to 
meet  such  dangers,  and  how  powerless  are  all  abstract 
conceptions  over  against  them  !  The  equality  of  all 
"  who  carry  a  human  face  "  will  not  allow  itself  to  be 
established  through  a  mere  decree.  It  can  only  come 
to  a  reality  and  power  over  against  the  painful 
differences  of  the  standpoint  of  experience  if,  on  the 
one  hand,  all  the  differences  of  men  finally  vanish  and 
strictly  turn  into  an  infinite  greatness ;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  if  a  common  problem  ignites  itself  and 
overflows  all  else  which  otherwise  compromises  effort 
and  achievement.  Nothing  other  than  religion  can 
verify  this.  For  the  conscious  hold  upon  an  Absolute 
Life  prevents  the  man  from  reaching  final  conclusions 
in  the  differences  of  the  standpoint  of  experience ; 
and  the  opening  out  of  a  new  task  concerning  the 
whole  inner  man  together  with  the  demands  of  this 
turn  of  man  press  down  all  remaining  activity,  press 
the  whole  province  of  achievement  to  a  lower  level. 
This  fact  appears  in  that  emancipating  parable  of 
Jesus,  of  the  Talents,  and  from  this  source  flows 
through  the  whole  broad  current  of  humanity;  it  has 
often  run  underground,  but  ever  anew  runs  out  into 
the  light.  Also,  out  of  the  consciousness  of  the 
equality  of  all  before  God  has,  upon  the  ground  of 
human  history,  dawned  a  longing  for  equality  over 
againsl  the  different  situations  of  men.  a  longing  for 
an  acknowledgment  of  the  rights  of  man.  In  the 
army  of  Cromwell  there  originated  first  of  all  a 
longing  after  universal  and  equal  political  rights ;  and 
it  was  out.  of  a  r<  iigious  foundal  ion  I  li.il  i  lie  proclama- 
tion of  ibe  rights  of  111:111  wcni  forth  in  America. 
Thus   religion   Ins  called    forth   greal   movements — 


270  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

movements  which  often,  through  the  fault  of  their 
representatives,  have  turned  against  their  own  origin, 
but  not  without  having  to  pay  the  penalty  by  falling 
into  shallowness  and  sinking  into  a  subjective  passion 
of  their  inner  unveracity.  Wherever  religion  has 
stood  with  the  fresh  energy  of  youth,  it  has  always 
brought  men  nearer  together,  it  has  always  been  the 
protector  of  the  weak,  and  always  a  help  to  the 
aspiring  soul ;  it  is  only  where  it  has  become  withered 
and  senile  that  religion  is  used  for  the  maintenance 
of  private  interests  and  privileges. 

(cc)  The  Aspiration  after  Eternity.  —  At  a  first 
glance,  man  appears  throughout  as  a  creation  of  time  ; 
he  lives  and  works  in  time ;  the  actual  affairs  of  time 
seem  to  determine  his  whole  life  and  being.  But  in 
spite  of  all  this,  it  is  false  to  assert  that  man  belongs 
entirely  to  time ;  the  situation,  if  it  were  so,  would 
become  intolerable  to  him  and  would  mean  an  inner 
devastation.  And,  on  account  of  this,  he  undertakes 
an  energetic  struggle  against  the  seeming  situation, 
and  this  struggle  forms  not  a  mere  episode  of  his  life, 
but  penetrates  all  culture  and  spiritual  work,  for 
without  a  trust  upon  eternal  truth,  and,  indeed,  with- 
out some  kind  of  eternal  life,  there  is  no  energy  in  the 
effort,  no  greatness  in  the  character,  and  no  depth  in 
the  love.  "  Love — sincere  love  and  not  a  merely 
passing  desire — never  clings  to  the  perishable,  and 
awakens  and  kindles  itself  in  the  Eternal  alone. 
Never  is  man  able  to  love  himself  except  when  he 
conceives  of  himself  as  an  eternal  being,  and  outside 
this  he  is  unable  either  to  respect  or  to  sanction  him- 
self. Still  less  is  he  able  to  love  something  outside 
himself  unless   he   raises   that   something    into    the 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       271 

eternity  of  his  belief  and  of  his  soul,  and  links  it  to 
these"  (Fichte). 

Thus,  there  proceeds  through  the  life  of  humanity 
an  energetic  struggle  against  the  dissemination  of 
things  on  the  mere  flux  of  time.  We  have  seen 
repeatedly  that  all  that  is  termed  "  history "  in  a 
special  human  sense  carries  in  itself  such  a  struggle, 
and  that  man,  in  such  a  struggle,  holds  or  might  hold 
with  his  utmost  exertion  something  inward  which 
otherwise  would  be  lost  on  the  river  of  time.  The 
historical  configuration  of  life  and  conduct  signifies 
the  building  in  the  midst  of  time  of  an  order  of  things 
superior  to  time ;  this  is  purely  the  aspiration  after 
eternal  truth  and  an  all-comprehensive  present,  which 
confers  on  history  an  inner  movement  as  well  as  an 
inner  connection.  And  does  not  the  individual  strive 
in  a  similar  manner  in  connection  with  his  own  self? 
Is  there  a  true  life  without  a  stepping  beyond  the 
mere  flight  of  the  moment,  without  a  crystallisation 
in  one's  own  self  as  happens  in  the  formation  of 
character  and  of  spiritual  individuality? 

Such  a  superiority  to  time,  and  such  a  power  over 
against  time,  can  never  be  brought  forth  by  the 
Spiritual  Life  through  merely  human  means;  what  is 
found  in  us  must  stand  in  connection  with  an  inde- 
pendent world  of  spirit.  Without  such  a  world  and  its 
conscious  presence  all  attempts  to  rescue  ourselves  from 
the  river  of  time  are  hopeless,  and  the  man  becomes  a 
mere  creature  of  the  day.  The  inauguration  of  an 
Absolute  Life  in  our  domain  is,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
kernel  of  religion  ;  and  such  a  Life  in  this  respect 
forms  the  conclusion  of  a  great  movement,  whose 
reality  may  be  judged   as  a  corroboration  of  its  own 


272  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

truth.  Religion  not  only  forms  a  foundation,  but 
also  heightens  the  aspiration  after  eternity,  and  finds 
this  goal  more  and  more  through  its  turn  to  man's 
own  nature,  and  in  this,  too,  discovers  an  altitude 
above  mere  time.  All  the  great  thinkers  were  united 
in  proclaiming  that  all  spiritual  work  of  the  deeper 
kind  participates  in  an  eternal  world ;  but  when  a 
formation  of  man's  nature  appears  beyond  the  province 
of  all  mere  activities,  and  when  an  independent  start- 
ing-point of  a  true  Spiritual  Life  is  recognised  in  man, 
then  this  characteristic  spiritual  existence  must  be 
raised  above  the  transient.  The  current  opinion  and, 
generally,  also  religion  give  an  insufficient  and  even 
incongruous  expression  to  this  necessary  truth,  because 
they  consider  as  the  main  fact  the  duration  in  time 
of  the  natural  individuality  with  all  its  egoism  and 
limitations.  This  mode  of  conceiving  things  must 
call  forth  a  progressive  contradiction  in  the  particular 
interest  of  a  religion  which  has  been  laid  in  the  forms 
of  the  finite  and  of  human  nature.  But  it  is  one  thing 
to  doubt  an  anthropomorphic  immortality ;  it  is  quite 
another  thing  to  deny  the  spiritual  nature  of  man  as 
a  participator  in  eternity.  For  such  a  customary 
notion  means  not  so  much  the  projecting  out  of 
earthly  views  of  the  future,  as  of  surrendering  all 
Spiritual  Life  to  bare  Time,  and  along  with  this  to 
press  it  down,  fritter  it  away,  and  inwardly  destroy  it. 
Also,  the  life  of  man  in  Time  thus  becomes  a  mere 
appearance  and  shadow  unless  there  dwells  within  him 
a  striving  towards  eternity;  and  consequently,  through 
a  complete  binding  to  Time,  all  human  experience  and 
all  human  reality  which  endeavoured  to  illumine  the 
mere  moment  sink  back  into  the  abyss  of  nothingness. 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       273 

Whilst,  however,  religion  clearly  encloses  an  eternal 
order  and  allows  not  merely  the  acts  of  men  but  also 
their  existence  to  participate  in  such  an  order,  the 
thought  of  eternity  gains  a  great  power  for  life  and 
character.  Now,  all  active  progress  in  Time  finds  its 
counterpart  in  a  life  resting  in  itself ;  the  movement 
of  life  is  not  an  entrance  into  Time  but  a  stepping  out 
of  Time.  And  thus  we  are  able  to  understand  the 
proclamation  of  a  thinker  of  the  Middle  Ages,  that 
man  shall  become  younger  every  day. 

(dd)  The  Aspiration  after  Fellows/dp  and  after  a 
Soul. — The  world  of  experience  shows  a  co-existence 
of  elements  in  nature  and  in  human  society,  which 
move  amongst  each  other  in  the  most  varied  ways, 
which  link  themselves  ever  faster,  interlace  themselves 
ever  more  definitely,  and  construct  an  ever-completer 
web.  Hut  all  relation  and  intricacy  remain  linked  to 
the  external  performances  and  effects  ;  what  precedes 
what  is  in  the  elements  themselves,  or  if  anything  on 
the  whole  precedes  them— this  is  not  the  question. 
Viewed  from  this  point,  then,  human  connections  as 
well  as  the  whole  of  the  world  become  more  and  more 
a  well-regulated  mechanism  into  which  the  individual 
life  must  enter  in  order  to  accomplish  its  own  work, 
and  in  order  to  uncouple  any  special  movement  of  the 
world-machine.  An  inner  fellowship,  an  over-in- 
dividual experience  of  men  and  things  from  within, 
must  now  appear  as  an  absurd  and  illicit  thought. 
And  yet  such  a  thought  gains  a  power  over  man  and 
engenders  an  endless  movement.  All  friendship  and 
love  might  now  participate  in  the  inner  life  of  another  ; 
and    that   these    possess    a   soul    behind    all    external 

activity  is  undoubted  ;  our  own  experience  of  things 

18 


074-  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

unlocks  the  door  of  art  and  leads  to  the  realm  of  science. 
Everywhere  we  find  demands  and  movements  beyond 
the  external  contiguity,  everywhere  one's  own  life 
with  its  entrance  into  the  life  of  another  seems  to 
experience  an  immeasurable  elevation,  and  to  gain 
first  and  foremost  a  content  and  a  value.  Does  not 
the  whole  of  culture  place  itself  under  the  view  that 
over  against  the  world  of  effects  and  counter-effects 
a  province  of  existence-for-self  arises  and  opens  out 
into  an  ever-greater  kingdom  ? 

Thus,  the  fact  of  a  movement  towards  inwardness 
cannot  be  doubted,  but  a  mighty  problem  arises  along 
with  it,  and,  too,  intertwining  transformations  of  the 
view  of  the   world    become   necessary.     The   whole 
movement  is  an  error  and  a  falsehood  if  it  possesses 
no  depth  of  the  things,  and  it  exhausts  its  own  life  in 
this  system  of  relations.     But  what  is  to  be  under- 
stood by  "  depth,"  and  how  is  it  reachable  ?     Reach- 
able it  is  in  no  way  through  the  mere  agitation  of 
subjectivity,  as  the  main  current  of  the  present  day 
would  make  us  believe.     When  this  main  current  of 
the  present    states   that   depth    of  soul    is  reachable 
through  an  emancipation    from    the  environment  as 
well  as  through  the  transformation  of  life  into  a  free 
and  somewhat  artistic  character,  all  unbiassed  opinion 
easily  recognises  this  as  an  error.     Man,  in  the  mere 
disposition   of  his    nature   as    well   as   in   his    mere 
achievements,  is  still  sufficiently  empty  and  shallow ; 
he  has  only   changed  one   superficiality  for  another, 
but  in  no  way  lias  he  gained  in  depth.     Have  then, 
to-day,    all    the    broad     developments    of    external 
harmony,  all  luxury  and  self-importance,  strengthened 
the   substance   of  life,   and   have  they  in   any  kind 


THE   FACT   OF    UNIVERSAL  RELIGION       275 

of  way  made  man  fuller  of  content  and  deeper 
of  experience  ?  In  reality  subjectivity  is  not  yet 
by  any  means  inwardness,  and  disposition  is  not  by 
any  means  a  soul.  There  is  no  inwardness  of  life 
possible  for  us  without  an  inward  life  of  reality ; 
there  is  in  the  individual  positions  of  life  no  inner  life 
without  the  presence  of  an  inner  world.  Man  could 
never  strive  after  an  inwardness  had  he  not  been  able 
to  disengage  himself  in  some  kind  of  way  from  niceties 
of  forms,  and  to  gain  a  portion  in  Eternal  Life.  And 
the  facts  are  such  that  a  genuine  inwardness  only 
develops  where  great  tasks  and  a  great  strain 
originate,  where  a  struggle  for  a  new  being  burns 
within,  and  along  with  it  a  spiritual  self  ascends,  an 
essential  formation  of  the  nature  results,  and  in  the 
throe  a  personality  and  spiritual  individuality  is  born. 
lie  who  carries  not  such  problems  in  his  own  soul 
and  who  seeks  not,  in  all  the  expansion  of  work, 
before  all  else  to  find  his  own  self,  can  never  gain  a 
deptli  and  soul  for  himself.  Hut  is  all  this  possible 
unless  our  life  stands  within  a  total-life,  and  unless 
we  are  carried  by  such  ?  It  is  religion,  however, 
which  pleads  for  the  presence  of  this  total-life,  and 
which  brings  us  to  an  appropriation  of  it.  When 
religion  conceives  of  the  facts  as  a  Whole,  the  move- 
ment towards  inwardness  will  considerably  heighten, 
and  the  insufficiency  of  the  ordinary  situation  enters 
for  the  first  time  into  consciousness.  Now  it  is 
clearly  discovered  how  alien  man  usually  appears  in 
the  midst  of  .ill  external  relationships,  how  coercive 
the  narrowness  of  natural  existence  holds  him  fast, 
and  how  shallow  and  soulless  the  life  shapes  itself 
through  all  this.      Clear,  too,  it  will  ever  more  he  how 


J7(i  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

the  movement  of  culture  itself  heightens  the  danger 
in  that  it  differentiates  men  from  each  other  more 
than  ever,  increases  more  and  more  the  distance 
between  them,  and  casts  away  more  and  more  the 
individuality.  Through  all  this  there  arises  an  inner 
alienation  of  man,  and  a  loneliness  of  soul  in  the 
midst  of  all  the  fellowship  of  work.  How  otherwise 
can  the  walls  of  separation  be  broken  down,  and  how 
can  the  inner  experience  of  one  individual  draw 
nearer  to  that  of  another  save  through  the  opening 
out  of  a  life  on  the  other  side  of  all  natural  individual- 
ity, through  a  participation  in  a  world  which  includes 
even  our  own  natural  world,  and,  indeed,  can  include 
all  worlds  \  It  is  only  when  a  fellowship  of  life  and 
a  mutual  understanding  have  been  gained  that  the 
various  individualities  can  further  one  another  in  a 
positive  manner,  and,  out  of  the  contact,  a  mutual 
restoration  can  take  place. 

Thus,  in  the  relationship  of  man  with  man,  all  lies 
in  the  gaining  of  a  corporate  life  which  encompasses 
and  binds  all.  The  problem,  however,  reaches  beyond 
this  to  the  relationship  of  man  with  his  own  soul. 
In  this  natural  state  his  deeper  being  is  no  less  strange 
to  man  than  is  the  deeper  being  of  another ;  his  own 
soul  is  to  him  closed  and  inaccessible,  and,  before  all 
discovery  of  spiritual  qualities  outside  himself  becomes 
possible,  he  must  first  of  all  discover  and  assimilate 
his  own  deeper  being.  And  he  can  do  this  only 
through  the  vivification  of  a  spiritual  world  which  he 
makes  objective  for  himself,  which  gains  for  him  his 
own  special  nature,  and  which  raises  him  beyond 
his  natural  state.  The  customary  opinion  can  only 
darken  such   a  limitation    of   the    characteristic    life 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       2 


/■v    I      I 


through  the  environing  and  changeable  world,  because 
such  an  opinion  lias  no  eye  for  problems  of  such  a 
nature,  and  looks  upon  the  most  difficult  as  self- 
evident,  and  conceives  of  the  fruit  brought  forth 
through  the  universal  toil  of  the  ages  as  being  nothing 
more  than  a  result  of  the  mere  moment.  Wherever 
the  problem  is  discovered,  history  is  seen  to  furnish 
an  incontestable  proof  for  the  definite  connection  of 
religion  and  inwardness.  Let  us  confine  ourselves  to 
the  beginnings  of  Christianity.  What  changes  have 
these  sources  brought  forth  in  this  respect  compared 
with  rich  and  beautiful  antiquity  !  How  much  nearer 
they  have  brought  man  to  man  through  the  opening 
of  a  corporate  world  out  of  belief  and  hope  as  well  as 
a  corporate  activity  of  life ;  how  they  have  created 
the  basis  for  a  spiritual  art  and  a  spiritual  intercourse 
witli  nature :  and  how  they  have  unlocked  man's 
nature  and  brought  him  nearer  to  his  own  soul ! 
Could  Jesus  have  seen  so  much  in  the  little  child, 
could  he  have  explained  nature  as  a  symbol  of  the 
Divine  without  the  presence  of  a  kingdom  of  in- 
wardness within  himself?  And  such  holds  valid  for 
the  whole  course  of  the  ages  :  wherever  religion — 
religion  understood  in  the  widest  sense,  and  as  a 
religion  of  the  spirit — has  stepped  into  the  background, 
there  the  inner  life  has  become  stunted,  if  not  at  once, 
yet  after  :i  while.  Also,  it  holds  valid  for  the  present 
day  that  wherever  religion  has  been  awakened  out  of 
the  social  custom  into  our  own  life,  it  has  in  the 
simplest  relationships  of  life  aimed  at  developing 
more  depth  than  is  often  to  be  found  imbedded  in 
the  highest  achievements  of  culture.  Thus,  all  gain 
of  a  true  inwardness  becomes  a  testimony  for  religion. 


878  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

and  thus  we  see  the  struggle  for  religion  forming  a 
portion  of  the  struggle  for  the  soul  of  life.  To-day, 
when  the  external  world  forces  itself  so  mightily  upon 
us,  and  draws  us  to  itself  so  overwhelmingly,  there  is 
needful,  indeed,  more  than  a  subjective  fortification 
in  ourselves — there  is  needful  the  development  of  an 
energetic  inner  life.  Shall  we  give  up  lightly  the 
indispensable  associate  in  the  struggle — religion — as 
happens  too  often  to-day  ? 

{ce)  The  Aspiration  after  Greatness.— The  view  of 
human  things  shows  the  individual  so  small  by  the 
side  of  the  whole  of  humanity,  and  the  view  of  the 
world  shows  humanity  so  small  by  the  side  of  a 
boundless  universe.  What  has  been  held  valid  from 
time  immemorial  in  connection  with  this  matter  has 
been  brought  fully  to  consciousness  only  in  modern 
times.  Viewing  things  from  the  ancient  childish 
level,  humanity  considered  itself  as  the  centre  of  all ; 
and  even  with  the  toning  down  of  such  a  claim  there 
appeared  still  a  greatness  of  a  human  kind,  which 
man  saw  within  the  All,  and  with  which  he  believed 
himself  to  have  definite  intercourse.  We  have 
already  observed  how  nature  gained  a  complete 
independence  over  against  man,  how  it  has  drawn 
him  more  and  more  to  itself,  and  how  step  by  step  it 
has  honoured  him.  Through  all  this  his  condition 
and  actions  seem  to  lose  all  significance  for  the  All, 
so  finally  man  had  to  seek  his  happiness  and  greatness 
within  his  own  circle.  But  if  he  depends  on  the  light 
which  shines  from  such  a  corner  and  not  on  the  light 
which  shines  from  the  inward  connections,  if  he  is 
posited  wholly  upon  his  nearest-at-hand  existence  and 
develops  all  out  of  this,  there  originates  a  picture  that 


THE  FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       279 

lias  no  place  for  inward  greatness  and  original  worth. 
Far  too  intrusive  stands  before  our  eyes  the  struggle 
for  existence,  the  stormy  hurry  of  this  life,  the 
unkempt  wild  growth  of  greed  and  passion,  the 
organised  and  coercive  power  of  general  effects,  for 
us  to  remain  with  and  delineate.  In  a  word,  we 
witness  an  immeasurable  expenditure  of  life  and  a  vast 
amount  of  work,  and  yet  through  it  all  no  correspond- 
ing gain  and  no  meaning  of  human  life  either  for  the 
individual  or  for  the  Whole.  Such  contradiction  and 
senselessness,  and.  indeed,  the  nothingness  of  the 
whole,  cannot  be  avoided  by  man  so  long  as  he 
remains  simply  within  the  clamour  of  this  mechanism, 
and  so  long  as  he  attempts  to  develop  his  life  merely 
from  point  to  point,  and  allows  his  whole  efforts  to  be 
concentrated  upon  isolated  aspects.  But  as  soon  as 
thought  and  reflection  are  freed  from  such  a  tie  and 
are  set  upon  a  Whole,  then  there  can  be  no  doubt 
as  to  the  intolerable  hollowness  and  nothingness  of 
such  an  existence,  for  such  an  emancipation  and 
reflection  of  the  Whole  cannot  possibly  be  hindered. 

Thus,  man  will  reflect  on  ways  and  means  of  escape 
from  this  abasement ;  and  to-day  an  effort  in  this 
direction  is  visible  enough.  Hut  as  the  effort  reveals 
itself  in  the  realm  of  a  superficial  situation,  it  is 
consequently  of  a  kind  too  little  inclined  to  set  the 
highest  goal  in  front  of  itself.  One  hopes  to  push 
aside  the  small  and  commonplace  and  to  obtain  once 
more  greatness  and  joy  for  the  nature  of  man — a  state 
in  which  man  raises  himself  into  a  \'vvc  sentiment 
above  the  whole  mechanism  ;  and  thus  the  differences 

of  individual   and    individual    are   brought    forth,   and 

the  differences  of  the   individual  over  against  other 


280  FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

individuals  and  over  against  the  whole  of  the  environ- 
ment are  strengthened.  In  such  a  course  of  thought 
the  uncontracted  sovereignty  of  the  individual  is  often 
proclaimed,  and  greatness  is  sought  in  the  discarding 
of  all  external  restraints.  In  this  manner  the  man 
seems  to  enjoy  what  is  ordinarily  termed  personality, 
but  what  in  reality  is  only  a  kind  of  natural  individu- 
ality. Such  a  course  of  thought  has  its  own  right — 
or,  rather,  its  own  semblance  of  right — only  through 
a  strong  and  hardly  conceivable  optimism  in  the  midst 
of  all  the  experiences  and  entanglements  of  modern 
life.  It  has  to  presuppose  man  endowed  with  highly- 
gifted  spiritual  potencies  and  set  upon  high  aims, 
otherwise  it  becomes  a  confirmation  of  an  egotistic 
greed  of  life  and  of  all  the  raw  impulses  of  life ; 
indeed,  it  will  work  more  toAvards  the  sinking  than 
towards  the  elevation  of  life.  The  fundamental 
mistake  consists  in  this  :  to  affirm  in  the  parts  what 
is  denied  in  the  Whole  ;  to  wish  to  retain  within  the 
human  province  of  the  relationship  of  man  to  man  a 
greatness  which  had  been  lost  in  the  deeper  life 
and  nature  of  man  as  a  Whole.  Such  a  greatness 
has  been  lost  wherever  man  has  become  a  mere  piece 
of  an  impervious  world,  and  wherever  he  has  forfeited 
all  inner  relations  to  the  whole  of  reality.  Man 
can  retain  such  a  greatness  only  when  there  dawns 
within  him  a  new  stage  of  reality,  only  when  he 
participates  in  the  AVhole  of  this  new  world,  when  he 
does  not  contract  himself  upon  isolated  activities,  when 
there  breaks  forth  from  the  new  life  a  new  being  and 
new  self.  Then  the  world  and  its  enterprises  can 
become  man's  own  experience,  and  then  he  is  able  to 
carry  the  Whole  along  with  him  and  to  participate  in 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       281 

the  struggle  of  worlds,  then  he  has  to  represent  the 
Whole  in  the  individual  parts,  and  thus  becomes 
through  what  he  does  a  necessary  portion  of  the 
cosmic  movement ;  and  it  is  all  this  which  constitutes 
in  reality  his  aspiration  after  greatness  of  life.  Indeed, 
the  more  certain  the  life  possesses  such  greatness,  the 
less  man  aims  to  speak  of  it.  Understood  thus,  the 
aspiration  after  greatness  is  not  conceived  mainly  as 
one  difference  against  another,  not  as  a  superior  pomp 
against  the  environment,  but  brings  along  with  it  the 
deepening  of  the  soul  itself  and  the  infinite  evolution 
of  one's  own  soul. 

All  this  is  not  possible,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
without  the  opening  of  an  independent  Spiritual  Life 
in  the  particular  domain  of  man ;  and  with  the  truth 
of  this  stands  or  falls  all  greatness  of  life.  It  is 
religion  which  connects  together  life  as  a  Whole, 
and  which  as  a  Whole  opens  out  to  man  ;  and  thus 
religion  is  simply  indispensable  to  the  foundation 
and  evolution  of  the  greatness  of  life.  Religion  raises 
out  of  the  otherwise  destructive  and  scattered  elements 
;i  simple  outline ;  it  gives  life  the  comprehensiveness 
of  a  powerful  drama,  opens  out  a  great  antithesis  in 
the  main  direction  of  life,  and  at  the  same  time  calls 
man  to  a  characteristic  decision  of  his  own  ;  it  makes 
the  problem  of  the  All  become  the  personal  experience 
of  man  and  gives  him,  through  the  inward  presence 
of  the  Absolute  Life,  a  superiority  to  the  world.  The 
life  is  here  securely  raised  above  the  anxieties  of 
Datura!  and  social  existence  through  the  inner  task 
of  moving  from  a  Whole  to  a  Whole.  This  certainly 
happens  only  through  the  formation  <>C  ;i  religion  of 
the    Spiritual     Life    and    under   the    summons    for    a 


282 FUNDAMENTAL  BASIS  OF  UNIVERSAL  RELIGION 

complete  self-sovereignty.  A  religion  of  obedient 
subjection  and  blind  devotion  must  certainly  coerce 
man — coerce  him  deeper  than  any  human  power  of 
command,  and  such  a  state  of  things  brings  about  a 
stagnation  of  life  in  its  inmost  source.  But  why 
should  we  as  free  men  bind  our  conceptions  of  religion 
to  the  presentations  of  another,  and  why  should 
human  disfigurements  darken  the  picture  of  religion 
for  us — a  picture  that  arises  out  of  the  necessity 
of  the  Spiritual  Life,  and  which  has  verified  itself 
sufficiently  in  universal  effects  ? 

Conclusion. — In    all    individual    points   a   definite 
connection  of  religion  with  the  total-development  of 
the  Spiritual  Life  was  observed.     This  fact  need  only 
be  conceived  more  clearly  in  its  main  lines  in  order  to 
become  a  testimony  of  religion.     Step  by  step,  move- 
ments appeared  which  burst  through  the  world  of  ex- 
perience and  which,  indeed,  could  not  proceed  without 
coming  into  sharp  contrast  with  ordinary  experience. 
But  we  cannot  draw  fully  such  a  conclusion  as  this 
without  acknowledging  that  an  inversion  has  taken 
place  in  our  conception  of  reality,  and  that  a  new  world 
has  been  gained  ;  and  this  actually  happens  in  religion. 
Religion  appears  as  something  that  is  not  a  mere 
epiphenomenon  of  life,  but  as  a  necessity  that  grows 
out  of  man's  deeper  nature,  and  which  at  the  start 
may  not  appear  more  than  a  clarification  of  a  matter 
of  fact  without  whose  rule  no  aspiration  after  spiritu- 
ality could    arise.     The  wonder  originates  not   only 
in  any  one  special  situation  of  life,  but  penetrates  far 
more  into  all  Spiritual  Life.     To  him  who  does  not 
perceive  the  wonder  in  this,  to  him  who  does  not  see 
a  secret  verified  and  acknowledged  in  what  moves  us 


THE   FACT   OF   UNIVERSAL   RELIGION       288 

daily  and  hourly,  religion  appears  simply  as  a  super- 
fluous and  noxious  weed  of  life.  But  to  him  to  whom 
the  secret  has  unveiled  itself,  that  all  movements 
of  a  spiritual  kind  work  towards  us,  religion  is  no 
more  an  alien  thing,  and  he  sees  in  it  the  conclusion 
of  what  the  Spiritual  Life  all  along  carried  within 
itself.  Further,  to  him  will  the  conclusion  and  the 
emergence  out  of  the  deep  be  worthful  because  what 
otherwise  would  remain  veiled  has  come  to  great 
clearness,  and  what  otherwise  would  remain  scattered 
has  led  to  unity.  However,  through  such  an  elevation 
to  the  level  of  a  principle  an  inverted  order  of  life  has 
resulted,  which  works  for  the  elevation  of  all  the 
earlier  existence.  In  this,  religion  before  all  else 
guarantees  the  possibility  of  a  spiritual  existence,  and 
becomes  the  most  certain  thing  within  our  whole 
domain  of  life  ;  and  also,  it  becomes  the  hypothesis  of 
all  scientific  knowledge.  And  as  religion,  through 
such  a  source  of  the  Spiritual  Life,  results  in  a  constant 
elevation  above  the  interests  and  even  above  the 
whole  existence  of  the  mere-human  kind,  and  under- 
takes such  an  incessant  struggle  against  the  small 
human  modes  of  life,  it  is  completely  protected  from 
the  reproach  of  the  anthropomorphism  which  a  shallow 
mode  of  thought  lias  saddled  upon  the  nature  of 
religion  simply  because  such  a  mode  of  thought  has 
grown  for  a  great  length  of  time.  In  a  far  more 
fundamental  manner  than  all  negative  criticism  will 
the  delineation  of  the  religion  of  the  Spiritual  Life 
drive  out  anthropomorphism.  Indeed,  understood 
in  the  right  way,  religion  is  I  he  only  possible  way 
to  encounter  the  anthropomorphism  which  otherwise 
clings   inexorably  to  us. 


Part   III. — The  Opposition   to   Religion 

INTRODUCTION 

Our  investigation  has  already  reached  a  certain 
result.  It  has  been  shown  that  we  are  more  than 
the  mere  being  of  nature  ;  it  has  been  shown  that  an 
original  kingdom  of  spirit  unfolds  in  culture  ;  we 
have  seen  how  religion  is  able  to  stand  on  the  side 
of  the  individual,  and  how  it  has  been  subjectively 
appropriated  by  him.  The  truth  of  the  other  pro- 
vinces of  life  does  not  depend  upon  how  far  the 
individual  takes  possession  of  them  ;  science  remains 
science  although  the  individual  may  discover  but 
little  intellectual  movement  in  himself;  art  remains 
art  although  many  relate  themselves  to  it  in  a  crude 
kind  of  way.  But  in  spite  of  the  superiority  of 
religion  to  the  condition  and  even  the  caprice  of  the 
individual,  we  cannot  possibly  consider  the  previous 
conclusions  we  have  reached  as  final.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  must  have  already  surprised  us  that  what  we 
as  yet  have  discovered  as  religion  has  nowhere  out 
of  its  own  energy  brought  forth  an  historical  religion, 
and  has  never  become  the  conviction  of  a  great 
community.  Religion  must  always  be  able  to 
become  something  more  than  produce  such  results 
as  we  have  investigated,  for  unless  it  becomes  this, 

284 


INTRODUCTION  285 

it  is  evidently  unable  to  arrive  at  an  entire  reality. 
The  object  of  our  particular  investigation  is  to  search 
for  this  More.  We  have  gained  from  the  conception 
of  the  Spiritual  Life  a  certainty  of  the  fundamental 
fact  of  religion,  but  here  the  object  in  view  was 
directed  upon  the  positive  achievements,  upon  the 
triumphant  advance  of  religion.  The  opposition 
which  religion  had  to  overcome  was  left  largely  in 
the  background.  But  this  opposition  cannot  always 
remain  there  ;  it  must  come  to  more  than  a  partial 
articulation  ;  it  will  have  to  be  considered  and  esti- 
mated as  a  Whole.  And  in  this  investigation  difficult 
oppositions  and  hindrances  may  appear  which  will 
perhaps  carry  our  whole  consideration  of  the  subject 
into  a  new  track  and  therewith  lead  to  a  more  original 
formation  of  religion  than  has  hitherto  met  us.  Let 
us,  therefore,  see  how  matters  stand. 

That  something  sub-spiritual  and  non-divine  exists 
does  not  become  a  stumbling-block  and  a  shock  to 
religion,  for  all  this  is  unavoidable  on  account  of  the 
imperfect  stage  of  the  reality  we  find  in  the  existing 
world.  Religion  cannot  explain  evil— all  attempts 
at  explanation  within  the  province  of  religion  are 
lamentable  sophisms— but  religion  can  overcome  evil, 
overcome  it  through  the  elevation  and  triumphant 
achievement  by  it  of  a  representative  Divine  world. 
Hut  religion  must  adhere  unconditionally  to  such  a 
progress.  Indeed,  the  less  religion  presupposes  a 
reason  in  the  nearest-at-hand  world,  the  more 
vigorous  must  it  further  a  " becoming "  of  reason  a 
progressive  spiritualisation  of  existence  through  Hie 
energy  of  the  efficacious  Divine  within  itself.  Such 
a  meaning  can  be  extracted   in    varied  ways  according 


386  THE    OPPOSITION   TO    RELIGION 

to  the  different  stages  of  the  reality  with  which  we 
are  dealing,  but  always  the  higher  stages  must  raise 
up  the  lower  to  themselves  ;  the  Spiritual  Life  must 
raise  nature,  the  substance  of  the  spirit  must  raise  the 
human  form  of  existence ;  all  that  represents  within 
the  Spiritual  Life  the  unity  and  the  Whole  must  raise 
the  ramifications  and  particularity  of  life. 

The  picture,  however,  that  we  subsequently  expect 
and  must  expect  is  not  corroborated  by  experience. 
In  our  domain  especially,  the  new  life  meets  not  only 
individual  hindrances,  but  it  thrusts  itself  in  the  whole 
of  its  effects  upon  an  opposition  which  seems  insur- 
mountable. It  attains  no  independent  existence,  but 
remains  directed  by  the  energies  of  the  lower  level  of 
things  ;  the  Divine  here  is  not  able  to  raise  to  itself  the 
non-divine,  but  is  drawn  down  to  it,  and  is  degraded 
to  a  mere  means  for  the  aims  of  the  non-divine.  Such 
defencelessness  over  against  a  world  man  has  entered 
into  to  rule,  and  such  a  perversion  of  his  activities 
shake  of  necessity  the  belief  in  the  truth  of  things. 
How  are  such  weaknesses  compatible  with  the  con- 
ception of  the  Divine,  and  how  can  a  hemmed-in  and 
powerless  life  be  of  a  Divine  kind  ?  But,  also,  when 
the  reality  of  the  Divine  remains  unapproachable  as 
a  power  superior  to  the  world,  its  communication  to 
us  becomes  a  matter  of  ever  greater  doubt.  Of  what 
use  is  a  definite  Spiritual  Life  to  us  if  it  is  only  a 
knowledge  out  of  the  distance,  if  it  is  unable  to 
permeate  through  the  hindrances  of  our  existence, 
but  is  far  more  drawn  into  the  very  same  discord  from 
which  it  ought  to  free  us  ? 

Thus,  the  turn  of  life  undertaken  through  religion 
seems    to    be   drawn    right    into    the   entanglement 


INTRODUCTION  287 

instead  of  being  drawn  out  of  it.  There  results  in 
connection  with  religion  undeniably  a  removal  from 
the  prior  situation,  a  new  starting-point  is  gained, 
some  kind  of  movement  is  brought  into  a  current. 
But  when  this  movement  is  unable  to  rise  after  it  has 
opened  out  vistas  and  raised  desires  without  being 
able  to  fulfil  them,  it  has  made  the  situation  rather 
worse  than  better.  The  idea  of  an  independent 
Spiritual  Life  has  brought  forth  a  new  standard 
which  makes  much  inadequate  and  intolerable  which 
previously  had  raised  no  kind  of  obstacle ;  especially 
the  shallow  relationships  and  the  ordinary  everyday 
life  which  otherwise  might  have  remained  neutral 
now  step  upon  the  opposite  side  and  strengthen  the 
opposition  ;  the  hindrance  turns  from  the  external  to 
the  internal :  out  of  the  weakness  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  there  issues  an  inner  entanglement,  and  within 
our  own  domain  there  issues  a  discord.  Such  a 
confused  situation  turns  reflection  and  conviction  into 
the  most  painful  dilemma.  Too  much  exists  in  the 
mind  to  pronounce  a  simple  Nay  because  an  actual 
turn  of  life  has  already  resulted,  and  the  conflict  itself 
with  its  bitter  pang  is  engendering  the  existence  of  a 
movement.  Too  much  exists  to  pronounce  a  Yea. 
Thus,  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  is  able  to  win  us. 
And  yet  the  necessity  of  life  drives  constrainedly  to  a 
decision.  Will  this  knot  allow  itself  in  any  kind  of 
way  to  be  disentangled  \  Will  it  at  least  notify  the 
direction  in  which  we  have  to  search  and  to  work  ? 
Only  further  actual  conclusions  and  not  imaginative 
Suppositions  can  definitely  decide  concerning  this; 
and  the  attention  must  be  directed  especially  upon 
this. 


288  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

First  of  all,  however,  the  province  of  the  hindrances 
has  to  be  traversed,  and  its  impressions  have  to 
be  brought  to  an  open  judgment;  all  disguise  and 
extenuation  against  the  truth  would  be  a  wrong  as 
well  as  a  danger  to  all  further  progress.  Evidently 
our  investigation  has  entered  upon  a  new  stadium. 
In  the  first  place,  the  sun  of  a  Divine  Life  rose  out  of 
the  thick  cloud  of  the  initial  stages,  and  enabled  us 
to  witness  a  kingdom  of  reason  in  the  midst  of  all 
hindrances  ;  reflection  can  follow  joyously  the  exten- 
sion of  this  kingdom,  and  see  all  the  fulness  of  life 
and  effort  drawn  to  itself.  Now,  however,  thick 
clouds  arise  anew  and  veil  that  light  so  much  that  it 
becomes  dark  and  dull — more  inclined  to  allow  us  to 
discover  the  cessation  of  truth  than  to  lead  us  nearer 
to  it. 

Further,  our  life  may  be  compared  to  a  drama 
whose  handling  has  come  to  movement  in  a  toilsome 
kind  of  way.  But  a  reason  had  unfolded,  and  the 
world  seemed  to  have  opened  to  its  victorious 
advance.  Now,  however,  the  counter-play  begins 
and  grips  so  mightily  that  all  the  gain  is  endangered, 
and,  indeed,  it  threatens  to  transform  everything  into 
a  loss.  Whether  the  matter  remains  ultimately  in 
such  an  entanglement,  whether  reason  is  not  able 
to  carry  forth  further  energies,  and  through  this  to 
remain  master  of  the  field — all  this  must  remain  open 
as  a  possibility,  and  may  present  itself  as  a  hope.  In 
the  meantime,  however,  the  advocatus  diaboli  has  the 
solution,  and  it  may  express  it  bluntly.  For  all 
enfeeblement  and  excuse  come  from  evil.  In  con- 
nection with  the  particulars  of  explanation  one  alone 
has  to  be  remembered,  viz.  that  in  connection  with 


INTRODUCTION  289 

the  whole  question  the  matter  deals  not  concern- 
ing human  happiness  but  concerning  the  reality  of  a 
definite  Spiritual  Life,  concerning  the  presence  of  a 
higher  world  within  our  domain.  All  this  gives  the 
fact  a  more  earnest  outlook  and  the  question  an  in- 
comparably greater  vigour  than  the  mere  problem  of 
happiness  is  able  to  bring  forth. 


19 


PART  III.— THE  OPPOSITION  TO  RELIGION 

(Continued) 

CHAPTER   IX 

a.  The  Explanation  of  the  Opposition 
1.    The  Opposition  of  Nature 

The  Spiritual  Life  is  unable  to  desire  an  independ- 
ence without  placing  characteristic  demands  upon 
nature.  The  entire  binding  of  the  life  of  the  soul  to 
the  natural  process  shown  by  experience  raised  no 
obstacle  prior  to  the  turn  towards  spirituality.  For 
hitherto  the  life  was  a  mere  means  and  tool  to  the 
self-preservation  of  the  individual ;  it  would  not  and 
could  not  be  a  kingdom  of  its  own ;  it  developed  no 
original  content,  and  opened  out  no  new  world. 
The  spiritual  stage,  however,  has  brought  forth  all 
this.  Therefore  the  turn  to  spirituality  produces 
necessarily  the  longing  that  there  should  correspond 
to  this  independence  in  the  nature  of  man  an 
independence  of  existence  over  against  nature  ;  the 
new  aims  and  the  immediate  participation  in  the 
whole  of  an  infinite  and  eternal  world,  existing  by 
itself,  demand  appropriate  forms  of  life.  Indeed,  a 
superiority  and  sovereignty  over  nature  become  here 
an  urgent  demand.  For  if  the  turn  to  spirituality 
signifies   truly   a   penetration   of  reality  to   its   own 

290 


THE   EXPLANATION    OF   THE   OPPOSITION     291 

essence,  the  independent  progressive  Spiritual  Life 
must  out  of  itself  illumine  the  whole  domain  and 
draw  all  to  itself;  it  must  handle  this  domain  as 
means  to  its  own  ends,  and  as  stepping-stones  to  its 
own  height ;  and  it  will  at  least  desire  in  all  con- 
nections to  take  the  lead.  Such  a  demand  proceeds 
not  only  externally  but  far  more  internally.  As 
nature  itself  with  its  succession  and  mechanism  enters 
into  the  very  soul  of  man,  the  awakened  Spiritual 
Life  must  verify  its  independence  and  superiority 
over  against  this ;  it  must  rule  our  actions  more  and 
more,  and  must  link  all  effort  to  its  own  career. 
How  could  it  otherwise  execute  a  revolution  of  the 
total  reality  ? 

Do  the  facts  of  experience  show  such  a  "  becoming  " 

superiority  of  the  Spiritual  Life  ?     They  show  quite 

the   reverse.     The  spiritual  development  of  man  as 

well  as  the  natural  life  of  the  soul  remain  tied  to  the 

body,  and,  at  the  same  time,  they  remain  attached  to 

the    order  of  nature ;   they    become  and  grow  with 

the  body.    The  Spiritual  Life,  too,  thrives  and  wanes 

within  us.     That  the  body  is  more  to  man   than  a 

mere   tool   is    proved    evidently  by  so-called  mental 

pathology — which    is   really   brain    pathology — which 

contracts  most  powerfully  the   psychic   activity  and 

drives  man   to  perverted  paths.      Death,  again,  with 

its  extinguishing  of  the  whole  existence,  appears  as  a 

great  evil  proceeding  from  the   province  of  nature. 

For  the  Spiritual  Life  sets  aims  within  the  individual 

being  which    far  surpass   t  he  short  span  of  existence  ; 

activities  .ire  initiated  and   relationships   of  man    to 

man    are    framed    which    contain    a    longing    after    a 

permanent    duration  ;   the   man    works   with    incessant 


292  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

toil  for  his  own  cultivation,  and  achieves  by  his 
labours  a  personal  existence  and  a  spiritual  individu- 
ality in  order  to  witness  all  his  results  destroyed  so 
cruelly.  Over  against  this,  there  awakens  a  glowing 
longing  to  burst  such  limits  asunder,  and  to  participate 
in  some  kind  of  way  in  eternity  ;  thus  religion  became 
in  the  main  especially  the  promise  of  individual 
immortality.  But  not  only  does  experience  fail  to 
give  the  least  clue  to  this,  it  also  refuses  to  affirm 
that  what  appears  on  one  side  as  indispensable  appears 
on  the  other  side  as  superfluous.  How  often  does 
all  spiritual  emotion  fade  in  the  soul ;  the  spiritu- 
ality becomes  numb  and  dull,  and  it  gradually  dies 
almost  entirely  in  the  life-time  of  man.  What  has 
immortality  to  do  with  such  a  spent-out  life  ?  If, 
however,  death  forms  the  natural  conclusion,  can 
things  stand  otherwise  in  connection  with  that  which 
persists  as  a  spiritual  fire  for  the  whole  of  life,  and, 
indeed,  that  which  in  its  course  burns  with  love  ever 
more  energetic  and  ever  clearer  ?  Question  after 
question,  and  riddle  after  riddle  !  This,  however,  is 
certain,  that  in  our  view  of  the  matter  the  natural 
process,  unconcerned  with  spiritual  values,  follows 
simply  its  own  course  ;  the  most  glorious  spiritual 
greatness  offers  no  protection  against  an  early  death 
or  against  collapse  brought  about  by  ill-health  ;  but, 
on  the  other  side,  we  often  witness  spiritual  no- 
bodies unhappy  and  dragging  idly  along  an  arrested 
existence. 

The  experiences  of  peoples  and  of  humanity  corres- 
pond to  the  experiences  of  individuals.  The  aims 
and  values  of  the  Spiritual  Life  do  not  seem  to  exist 
for  the  blind  mechanism  of  the  natural  process  ;  these 


THE    EXPLANATION   OF  THE   OPPOSITION     293 

natural  powers  know  of  no  difference  between  good 
and  evil,  righteousness  and  unrighteousness,  inward 
greatness  and  smallness.  Earthquakes  and  floods  as 
in  a  play  destroy  the  blossoming  Spiritual  Life ; 
pestilence  and  hunger  hold  forth  their  harvest  without 
any  grief  concerning  human  welfare  and  spiritual 
values.  Nowhere  does  nature  rise  to  a  higher  order 
as  the  symbolism  of  the  Middle  Ages  imagined  to 
have  been  the  case  with  plants  and  animals  ;  it  merely 
constructs  an  enclosed  kingdom  concerned  with  itself 
alone.  A  mysterious  sphinx  stands  in  front  of  us, 
incessantly  bringing  to  birth  and  bringing  to  death, 
patiently  preparing  and  rashly  destroying,  benevolent 
and  pitiless  at  the  same  time,  its  objects  quickly 
befriending  one  another  and  quite  as  rapidly  pursuing 
one  another  in  a  relentless  struggle ;  all  this  verifies 
the  saying  that  nature  is  less  of  a  mother  than  of  a 
wicked  mother  to  her  children.  We  find  then  in 
nature  an  incessant  impetus  towards  life,  but  in  all 
the  agitation  and  movement  we  find  no  existence-for- 
itself,  no  life-for-self,  and  thus  no  genuine  fruits,  no 
meaning,  no  reason  of  the  whole,  but  all  seems  a 
passionate  play  without  reason  and  for  nothing.  Hut, 
however,  it  is  not  without  any  reason  at  all,  for  all  the 
works  of  nature  result  in  simple,  unswerving  funda- 
mental forms  and  in  a  fast  chain  of  occurrences  ;  they 
result  in  law  and  causality.  All  this  is  certainly 
reason,  but  as  yet  only  a  formal  reason  which  is 
throughout  indifferent  to  the  content  of  the  occur- 
rences. Also,  the  most  painful  destruction  of  life, 
the  origin  of  awful  malformations,  the  inheritance  of 
painful  diseases,  follow  throughout  in  accordance  with 
these   laws  and  with  the  causal  order.      Of  what  help, 


294-  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

however,  to  reason  is  that  which  places  so  much 
power  in  the  hands  of  unreason  ? 

Such  indifference  of  nature  to  all  spiritual  aims 
becomes  intolerable  in  religion,  and  religion  sought, 
as  out  of  a  constrained  necessity,  a  help  in  the 
miraculous  which  appeared  as  an  evident  proof  of  the 
sovereignty  of  spiritual  and  divine  energies  above 
nature.  But,  in  spite  of  all  toil,  a  secure  founda- 
tion for  such  an  assertion  cannot  be  found.  The 
scientific  conception  of  nature  as  well  as  historical 
criticism  have  undermined  the  belief  in  miracle,  until 
that  belief  has  become,  right  down  to  its  main  prop, 
a  burden  for  true  belief.  How  can  we  now  hold  up 
a  consolidated  inner  life  over  against  the  insecurity  of 
the  external  situation  !  And,  further,  the  mechanism 
of  nature  seizes  the  soul  and  places  all  action  in  an 
iron  band.  This  mechanism  cannot  hold  us  entirely, 
for  how  could  a  Spiritual  Life  rise  up  on  the  whole 
within  us  ?  And  also,  after  such  a  turn  towards  the 
Spiritual  Life  the  immediate  consciousness  places  the 
mechanism  underneath  itself;  the  spiritual  activity 
must  thus  have  won  some  kind  of  place  for  itself ;  it 
is  soon  pushed  out  of  it,  but  quickly  and  strongly  it 
returns  to  its  abode.  The  Spiritual  Life  has  to  be 
formed  out  of  the  Whole,  and  has  to  convince  us  of 
infinity  as  well  as  of  eternity.  But  in  the  nature  of 
man  it  disperses  itself  into  the  sheer,  incessant, 
changing  and  counter-stirring  flux  of  consciousness. 
True,  the  Spiritual  Life  struggles  against  such  a 
hindrance  but  does  not  forge  its  way  through  it ;  it 
remains  banished  in  the  background  and  sees  itself 
shut  out  of  the  obvious  reality  as  an  alien. 

Also,  the  emancipation  of  spirituality  from  nature 


THE   EXPLANATION   OF  THE   OPPOSITION     295 

cannot  be  brought  about  through  the  motive-powers 
of  life.  However  much  the  sensuous  impulses  may- 
be relegated  to  a  lower  level,  they  reassert  themselves 
with  such  strength  that  spiritual  activity  does  not 
seem  able  to  dispense  with  their  help.  How  dull 
would  such  an  activity  remain,  how  uninteresting 
would  all  work  become,  how  insipid  would  all  love  be, 
if  they  were  not  linked  to  a  natural  impulse,  and  if 
they  did  not  draw  the  potency  of  such  an  impulse 
to  themselves  !  Further,  the  characteristic  configura- 
tion of  the  Spiritual  Life  in  different  civilisations 
seems  determined  before  all  else  by  the  standard  and 
custom  of  the  natural  energy  of  life.  But  does  not 
the  fact  concerning  the  differences  of  the  historical 
religions  resolve  itself  to  this  :  whether  a  people  holds 
tenaciously  to  an  affirmation  of  life  and  sets  forth  this 
affirmation  in  spite  of  all  hindrances  as  the  Semites 
have  done,  or  whether  a  people  tends  to  deny  and 
to  destroy  such  an  affirmation  as  the  Indians  have 
done  ? 

The  natural  life  stands  on  a  lower  level  than  the 
impulse  of  self-preservation  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
in  the  domain  of  the  spirit  this  impulse  is  censured 
and  repudiated  as  selfishness.  Hut  shall  we  become 
free  of  it,  and  can  we,  in  the  main,  be  deprived  of  it  ? 
While  we  have  to  wrest  incessantly  our  existence  out 
of  an  alien  and  indifferent  world,  can  we  and  dare  we 
put  in  place  of  such  a  world  the  anxiety  for  self- 
preservation  \  This  anxiety  grows  and  refines  itself 
over  whole  nations  and  over  the  whole  of  human 
society.  I  low  much  depends  on  material  welfare 
and  how  much  it  signifies  even  for  the  Spiritual  Life, 
is    shown    with    special     clearness    by    the    economic 


296  THE   OPPOSITION   TO    RELIGION 

movements  of  the  present.  But  when  material 
things  become  so  much  to  us,  and  hold  us  in  so 
obligatory  a  manner,  what  becomes  of  the  elevation 
to  the  new  world  which  the  Spiritual  Life  and  also 
religion  with  all  its  might  long  for  ? 

The  total  impression  on  this  level  can  be  no  other 
than  tins :  that  the  Spiritual  Life,  too,  with  its 
awakening  to  a  clear  consciousness  remains  a  mere 
accompanying  phenomenon  of  the  natural  process. 
In  all  its  lofty  flight  the  effort  cannot  disengage  it- 
self from  a  dependence  from  without ;  it  remains  tied 
to  the  energies  of  nature ;  it  is  drawn  down  to  the 
service  of  nature.  This  barrier  becomes  an  intolerable 
contradiction  when  the  presence  of  the  Divine  is 
experienced  within  the  Spiritual  Life.  If  the  Divine 
is  really  in  the  transaction,  the  Spiritual  Life  must 
be  able  to  bring  its  efforts  to  fruition.  If  it  is  not 
able  to  do  this,  how  could  we  revere  such  a  Life 
as  Divine? 

2.   The  Opposition  of  Culture 

Certain  as  the  weakness  of  the  spirit  over  against 
nature  remains  a  mystery,  it  would  have  been  in- 
tolerable if  the  man  were  not  able  within  his  own 
province  to  construct  a  kingdom  of  reason  and  to 
fortify  himself  against  all  attacks  and  doubts.  In 
reality  a  unique  human  province  originates  over 
against  nature:  this  province  is  culture,  through 
which  man  prepares  a  new  kind  of  world.  This  new 
world  is  culture  as  it  develops  itself,  through  the 
conclusions  of*  individuals,  into  an  historical  life  and, 
through  history,  into  a  stratum  of  activity.  We 
have  previously  shown  that  this  human  culture  is  not 


THE    EXPLANATION   OF  THE   OPPOSITION     297 

able  to  bring  forth  spirituality  out  of  itself,  but  far 
more  presupposes  it.  But  in  spite  of  such  a  limita- 
tion, it  must  be  in  the  position  to  construct  its  basal 
development  out  of  deep  connections,  and  to  co- 
operate in  the  construction  of  a  kingdom  of  reason. 
This  is  to  be  expected  and  desired  of  culture.  Culture 
is  called  to  break  the  contradiction  and  untruth  of 
the  ordinary  commonplace  life,  and  to  seek  for  a  new 
order  of  things.  Now,  as  such  a  new  order  is  known 
and  acknowledged,  culture  must  victoriously  out  of 
its  own  energy  make  headway  against  the  old  situa- 
tion ;  it  must  free  and  weld  the  inner-abiding  reason 
of  our  existence,  and  triumphantly  drive  out  all 
unreason.  In  the  midst  of  all  the  unreadiness  of  our 
situation  the  dawning  of  a  Divine  Power  ought  to 
seal  fast  the  superiority  of  reason  and  transform  the 
movement  of  history  into  a  progressive  conquest  of 
the  spirit. 

It  is  thus  we  ought  to  find  things,  but  in  reality 
we  find  them  otherwise ;  instead  of  human  culture 
placing  itself  in  the  service  of  definite  spirituality,  it 
raises  itself  as  an  independent  master,  treats  its  own 
existence  and  development  as  the  highest  of  all  ends, 
and  consequently  cannot  very  well  but  reduce  the 
Spiritual  Life  to  a  mere  means,  and  set  it  fast  on  a 
level  where  its  services  seem  advantageous  to  culture. 
A  strong  inversion  is  evident  in  this  procedure.  It 
belongs  to  the  very  nature  of  the  Spiritual  I>ife  to  be 
independent  and  self-valued,  and  this  claim  it  can  in 
no  way  renounce.  Culture,  however,  need  only  be 
viewed  a  little  closer  in  its  qualifications,  in  order 
that  its  inability  to  discover  the  Spiritual  Life  may 
become  evident.      In  culture  there  result  conclusions 


i>98  THE   OPPOSITION   TO    RELIGION 

of  the  human  mind,  a  reciprocal  contraction  of 
certain  individual  elements  becomes  clear,  a  visible 
union  takes  place,  which  at  the  same  time  undertakes 
spiritual  tasks.  In  this  union  the  individuals  step 
forth  with  their  given  opinions,  i.e.  with  their  pre- 
vailing natural  impulses  and  with  but  little  spiritual 
qualities,  with  much  delight  in  themselves  and  with 
but  little  love  for  others.  Thus,  there  results  in  the 
union  of  individuals  some  kind  of  binding  of  spiritual 
elements,  a  certain  summation  of  potencies.  But 
such  a  binding  results  only  in  external  achievements 
and  without  a  just  differentiation  of  the  definite  and 
the  indefinite.  Consequently  there  easily  arises  a 
manifold  and  complicated  web  of  relations,  but  not, 
however,  an  inner  Whole ;  the  current  of  life  thus 
flows  not  from  the  internal  to  the  external  but  from 
the  external  to  the  internal ;  and  whatever  awakens 
in  the  form  of  spirituality  remains  tightly  tied  to  the 
purely  human  formation. 

All  this  may  be  relatively  valuable,  and  throughout 
indispensable  for  man,  but  inner  barriers  are  perceptible 
enough ;  and  if,  in  spite  of  the  acknowledgment 
of  these  barriers,  social  culture  makes  of  itself  an 
all-governing  end,  and  directs  itself  against  the 
independence  of  an  awakened  spirituality,  difficult 
entanglements  and,  indeed,  perversions  are  unavoid- 
able. That  social  culture  in  reality  is  not  more  than 
it  is,  is  no  detriment  or  reproach  to  it ;  while,  how- 
ever, it  can  be  more  than  is  possible  for  it  to  be 
through  the  actual  natural  state  of  affairs.  It  cannot 
become  more  so  long  as  it  presents  its  mixture  of 
reason  and  unreason  as  pure  reason,  so  long  as  it 
attributes  the  rights    of  absolute    spirituality  to   its 


THE    EXPLANATION   OF  THE   OPPOSITION      299 

conditioned  human  spirituality.  When  it  acts  from 
such  a  disposition  it  seeks  to  mould  all  spiritual  great- 
ness out  of  itself,  it  seeks  to  command  all  effort  out 
of  its  own  achievement,  and  to  satisfy  all  demands 
out  of  its  own  means  ;  and  finally  to  tie  the  movement 
to  the  point  where  it  can  reach  its  own  ends.  Hence, 
an  opposition  necessarily  originates,  and,  indeed,  a 
struggle  between  a  mere-human  and  a  genuine  spiritu- 
ality arises — a  struggle  which  must  work  with  all 
tenacity  because  the  struggle  on  the  mere-human  side 
is  also  led  in  the  name  of  the  spirit.  Such  a  dissension 
lies  evidently  before  our  eyes  if  the  all-powerful  State 
or  the  Church  with  its  monopoly  of  all  means  of  grace 
drags  with  its  utmost  all  Spiritual  Life  to  itself.  But 
the  struggle  spreads  itself,  however,  beyond  all  this 
to  the  whole  domain  of  human  connections.  Every- 
where the  mere  inclination  tends  not  to  raise,  free, 
and  transform  human  existence  out  of  its  level,  but 
to  leave  it  tied  to  itself  and  satisfied  with  itself,  and 
thus,  in  spite  of  all  the  seeming  expansion,  to  narrow 
it  inwardly.  Utilitarianism  and  relativism— two 
diminutives  of  the  Spiritual  Life — become  unavoid- 
able if  spiritual  greatness  and  connections  as  well  as 
religion  itself  are  considered  first  and  foremost  as 
social  organisations.  Then,  that  alone  is  termed 
"good"  which  is  useful  to  society;  that  is  termed 
"true"  which  finds  its  acknowledgment  in  society; 
and  both  arc  an  inner  subversion  of  the  definite 
meaning  of  the  two  concepts  without  the  discovery 
of  such  a  subversion.  The  subversion  is  so  varied 
and  disfigures  life  so  much  that  it  will  prove  of 
little  avail  in  the  main  tendencies  of  life. 

Human  alliances  always  develop  the  Spiritual  Life 


300  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

in  a  particular   kind    of  way,  but   on   this   path  the 
Spiritual  Life  is  not  able  to  stamp  itself  energetically 
without  a  strong  one-sidedness.     But  this  particular 
kind  of  way  tends  towards  the  greatest  stubbornness 
in  its  attempt   to    become  a  Whole,  and  it  coerces 
with   passionate   intolerance   all   remaining    activity. 
Such    contradiction    engenders  necessarily  in   course 
of  time  a  reaction ;  other  ideals  arise,  progress,  and 
discover  their  rights,  but  only  to  fall  quickly  into  the 
same    narrowness.       Thus    we   witness   an    incessant 
change  of  ideals,  a  zigzag  movement,   without  the 
superior  unity  of  the  whole,  without  the  necessary 
demand  of  definite  spirituality  to  step  forth  from  the 
background  to  take  the  lead.     We  observe  such  a 
change  of  ideals  clearly  enough  ;  the  experience  of 
history  shows   it   openly  with    impressive   clearness, 
and,  in  spite  of  this,  social  culture  treats  ever  anew 
the   occasional   drift   of  activity  as   the   only  right, 
the  only  possible,  and  the  conclusive  truth.     In  the 
abstract,  we  have  the  clearest  consciousness  of  the 
relativity  of  all  human  and  historical  achievements  ; 
in  the  concrete,  any  suitable  time  adapts  us  to  be- 
come carriers  of  absolute  truth.     And  must  not  this 
happen,  and  is  not  the  error  avoidable  in  order  to 
gain  character  and  energy  for  the  problems  of  time  ? 
Social   culture    can  do  no  other  than  present  the 
achievements  in  front  of  us  and  partially  conform  to 
such  achievements.     That  would  be  no  detriment  if 
such    a   limitation    were   acknowledged,    and    if   the 
inwardness  and  rights  of  the  life  of  the   soul   were 
preserved.      But  such  does  not  happen,  because  the 
achievements  together  with  all  their  residuum  as  well 
as  the  character  itself  are  enclosed  within  the  circle  of 


THE   EXPLANATION   OF   THE   OPPOSITION     301 

social  culture.  Thus,  all  life  and  action  are  driven  from 
the  character  to  the  performances,  and  this  works  to- 
wards a  stunted  growth  of  all  independent  inward- 
ness. The  direction  of  all  striving  upon  achievements 
-the  acknowledgment  of  external  results  alone  in  the 
life  of  others — becomes  a  great  danger  to  the  independ- 
ence of  character ;  man  now  finds  his  centre  of  gravity 
not  in  himself,  but  in  the  social  environment,  and 
thus  the  life  loses  the  energy  and  veracity  of  original 
creativeness.  He  who  in  the  first  place  works  not 
for  himself  but  for  others,  not  for  the  facts  but  for 
the  social  environment,  must,  in  spite  of  all  his  activity, 
exclude  himself  from  the  depth  of  things.  The 
greatest  defect  here,  however,  is  the  inevitable  rapid 
growth  of  pretence.  Where  all  the  value  lies  in  the 
effect  an  action  has  on  another  and  on  the  mere 
acknowledgment  of  another,  then  the  semblance  of 
truth  does  the  same  and  often  better  service  than 
truth  itself.  And  this  semblance  will  entangle  the 
whole  of  life,  and  poison  the  real  soul  of  man.  This 
semblance- character  of  social  culture  becomes  an 
intolerable  peril  when  the  inmost  soul  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  is  in  question,  as  e.g.  in  religion  and  morality, 
so  that  all  penetrating  creativeness  within  these 
provinces  was  a  burning  protest  against  the  pretence 
not  only  of  the  special  social  situation  but  also  of  the 
social  mode  of  handling  such  problems.  Hut  all 
protests  have  transformed  the  social  situation  but 
little. 

As  the  inwardness  in  this  manner  is  stunted  in  its 
growth,  therefore  the  individuality  is  pressed  back 
and  suppressed.  Since  society  values  and  nurtures 
in  man  especially  what  enters   into  its  ordinary  ar- 


302  THE   OPPOSITION   TO    RELIGION 

rangement,  characteristic  features,  discernment,  and 
eminence  are  thought  lightly  of,  curtailed,  and  ejected. 
Indeed,  the  more  exclusively  the  social  leadership  of 
life  takes  the  field,  the  individual  situation  suffers 
more  hindrance ;  the  more  monotonous  and  mechani- 
cal existence  becomes,  the  more  must  activity  itself 
grow  inwardly  coarser.  Also,  society  will  give  an 
ordinary  shallow  character  to  its  organisations — a 
character  which  often  harmonises  but  little  with  the 
inexhaustibleness  of  the  individual  cases  which  origin- 
ate, and  which  collides  sharply  with  the  individual 
nature  of  the  particular  cases.  Thus,  for  example, 
we  find  in  law  an  incessant  conflict  between  the 
general  norms  and  some  feature  of  the  individual 
fact.  But  shall  we  throw  such  norms  away  on 
account  of  this  ?  Or,  are  we  called  to  abandon  life 
to  a  complete  subversion  and  an  insecure  arbitrary 
choice  ? 

To  base  life  on  the  level  of  ordinary  everyday 
experience  is  extremely  precarious,  because  the  level 
of  human  relationships  has  no  altitude,  because  such 
ordinary  existence  must  depend  on  exhausted  move- 
ment and  waning  energy,  and  these  will  consequently 
organise  the  life.  When  the  ordinary  existence 
presents  itself  as  a  totality  and  standard  of  all 
spirituality,  it  enters  into  a  great  conflict  with  the 
development  of  true  spirituality.  The  elevated  out- 
look, greatness,  and  originality  appear  to  the  ordinary 
existence  as  useless,  excessive,  and  indolent.  Thus 
all  independent  spirituality  becomes  a  disturbance  of 
social  equilibrium,  becomes  a  reproof  against  social 
conclusions.  This  opposition  of  ordinary  existence 
engenders  severe  conflicts  with  tragic  issues  not  only 


THE    EXPLANATION   OF   THE    OPPOSITION     303 

in  particular  cases,  but  permeates  the  whole  of 
historical  life,  and  persists  even  in  the  external 
acknowledgment  of  greatness,  since  existence  drags 
such  greatness  down  to  its  own  level.  And  in 
the  central  questions,  the  acknowledgment  was 
wont  to  follow  only  when  the  greatness  was  removed 
far  back  enough  not  to  disturb  the  circles  thus 
acknowledging  it,  indeed  far  enough  to  be  able,  as 
'  classical,'  to  become  a  weapon  against  the  Spiritual 
Life  struggling  upwards  in  their  own  time. 

Again,  in  the  field  of  culture  there  appears  the 
same  defect  of  which  already  nature  makes  us 
painfully  aware,  the  cleavage  between  formal  and 
intrinsic  reason.  Society  places  all  life  and  action 
under  conjoint  forms,  and  insists,  before  all  else, 
upon  the  observation  of  these  forms ;  and  social 
culture  has  a  decidedly  formal  character.  As 
against  the  natural  level  the  entanglement  gets 
even  increased  here,  since  the  formal  reason  steps 
forth  and  is  acknowledged  by  society  as  the  carrier 
of  intrinsic  truth  ;  the  decisions  of  this  formal  reason 
claim  absolute  validity.  Now,  the  most  correct 
observation  of  all  forms  of  existence  offers  no 
guarantee  of  an  intrinsic  truth,  since  fallible  and 
easily  moved  men  have  to  apply  those  forms. 
Socrates  and  Jesus  were  sentenced  in  accordance 
with  all  the  forms  of  law,  and  the  Inquisition  and 
the  trials  for  witchcraft  were  most  correct.  All 
social  modes  of  life  stand  in  danger  of  injuring 
intrinsic  truth  whilst  holding  fast  to  the  formal 
truth.  Hence  nil  true  friends  of  morality  praise 
so  little  the  virtue  and  righteousness  of  civic  life  ; 
and    deep    religious    natures    arc    so    often    found   in 


!K)4  THE   OPPOSITION   TO    RELIGION 

sharp  opposition  to  the  basing  of  religion  on  forms, 
dogmas,  and  rites,  towards  which  the  social  formation 

CD 

of  religion  moves. 

The  more  clearly  the  effort  in  the  Spiritual  Life 
after  a  genuine  being — an  aspiration  towards  the 
essential  development  of  life — is  acknowledged,  the 
greater  must  that  disfigurement  and  damage  appear. 
But  does  a  knowledge  of  this  fact  make  formal 
reason  superfluous,  and  is  not  the  life  without  it 
abandoned  to  an  entire  dissolution  ? 

Thus,  there  appear  a  multitude  of  abuses,  and 
common  to  them  all  an  inner  unveracity,  a  desire  to 
appear  more  than  one  can  be,  the  raising  of  a  highly 
problematic  half-reason  to  absolute  reason,  an  idolatry 
of  the  social  circle !  Such  a  situation  of  life  must 
anew  cause  a  counter-movement,  and  this  must  rise 
in  opposition  not  only  to  individual  sides  and  regula- 
tions but  to  the  whole  of  this  social  mode  of  life. 
If  great  spiritual  renewals  work  in  such  a  counter- 
movement,  they  can  set  an  elevation  of  life  going. 
If  such  counter-movements,  on  the  other  hand,  be, 
as  is  usually  the  case,  mere  reactions,  all  their 
passionate  protestations  can  be  of  but  little  use 
essentially.  W  hat  shapes  itself  here  against  a  binding 
of  things  within  the  domain  of  freedom  remains  so 
many  formless  waves  of  feeling ;  the  individual  can 
indeed  appeal  to  the  immediacy  of  his  life  and  can 
revel  in  ever  new  moods,  but  the  substance  of  life 
profits  thus  but  little.  If,  in  kindred  directions,  the 
present  seeks  to  cast  off  all  the  burden  of  history,  and 
seeks  to  defray  the  cost  of  life  by  its  own  means 
alone,  no  complete  freedom  is  attained.  For  the  aspira- 
tion of  the  movement  is,  viewed  empirically,  a  testi- 


THE    EXPLANATION    OF   THE   OPPOSITION     305 

mony  of  history  even  when  it  places  itself  pointedly 
over  against  the  immediate  past.  Such  an  opposi- 
tion may  well  show  the  defects  of  social  culture, 
but  it  is  not  able  to  overcome  such  defects  from 
their  foundation.  Such  opposition  with  its  exaggera- 
tion of  the  individual  and  his  contingencies  passes 
easily  into  one-sidedness  and  error,  so  that  the  scales 
of  right  must  turn  again  to  the  level  of  social  culture. 
Thus  the  pendulum  of  the  movement  swings  inces- 
santly from  one  side  to  the  other  ;  ever  anew  one  side 
succeeds  through  exaggeration  against  the  other  side, 
and  in  the  passions  of  the  struggle  the  best  energies 
devour  themselves  without  having  gained  anything 
essential  for  the  main  fact.  But  it  is  always  the  con- 
clusion of  absolute  truth  that  makes  the  struggle 
passionate  and  overthrows  all  error. 

Thus,  social  culture  is  far  removed  from  being  the 
realisation  of  a  kingdom  of  reason  or  even  from 
becoming  so  by  degrees.  The  greater  will  be  the 
subversion — not  only  in  expressed  words  but  in 
acts — when  social  culture  stands  for  such  a  kingdom 
of  reason.  There  lies  in  such  a  worship  of  humanity 
a  delusion  which  must  issue,  in  the  particular  as  well 
.is  in  the  general,  into  clamorous  hindrance  and 
misrepresentation.  But  even  such  a  mode  of  life 
received  its  characteristic  feature  from  the  Spiritual 
Life,  and  can  never  wholly  deny  its  origin.  Hut  how 
does  this  Spiritual  Life  explain  itself  now  that  the 
lower  mode  of  life  draws  it  into  its  own  web  and 
offers  the  most  tenacious  opposition  to  all  progressive 
effort?  And  even  when  the  Spiritual  Life  is  con- 
ceived  as  ;i  world-power  and    returns   to   the    Divine, 

even    this    conception    is    drawn    into    the    sphere  of 

20 


306  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RKLKHON 

doubt.  Is  not  the  Spiritual  Life  able  to  eomplete 
the  work  begun  ?  Hut  why  then  was  the  work 
begun  ?  Out  of  what  do  these  hindrances  explain 
themselves  —  hindrances  which,  however,  do  not 
originate  out  of  the  mere  individual,  but  which  carry 
a  necessity  in  themselves  ?  Here  again  we  find  riddle 
after  riddle  !  All  the  obscurity,  however,  concerning 
these  questions  is  stimulated  on  the  path  of  denial. 

3.   The  Opposition  within  the  particular  Province  of 

the  Spiritual  Life 

Difficult  as  the  previous  entanglements  were,  they 
do  not  reach  to  the  deepest  root  of  the  Spiritual  Life. 
However  much  such  a  life  may  be  confined  within 
the  human  circle,  it  signifies  even  here,  through  inner 
movements  and  necessities,  a  real  kind  of  existence 
and  a  real  efficacy.  For  how  otherwise  does  the 
struggle  against  bare  nature  as  well  as  against  bare 
society  explain  itself,  and  how  could  the  injunctions 
of  both  be  discovered  as  insufficient  ?  Also,  such  an 
elevated  Spiritual  Life  encompasses  and  permeates 
our  existence  not  merely  as  an  invisible  total  atmo- 
sphere, but  it  unites  itself  as  a  great  Whole  in  art, 
science,  morality,  etc.,  and  develops  a  propelling  force 
within  its  own  province,  and  works  beyond  the 
individual  province  in  the  whole  realm  of  life.  Thus 
there  originates  here  without  a  doubt  an  original 
sphere  of  life.  Has  this  sphere  overcome  the  en- 
tanglements, and  has  it  resulted  in  an  emancipation 
from  the  hindrance  and  error  which  otherwise  saddle 
human  existence  ? 

Such  were  in  fact  the  opinions  and  hopes  of  ancient 
and  modern  times.     All  disorder  was  pressed  into  the 


THE   EXPLANATION   OF  THE    OPPOSITION     307 

relationship  with  the  environment ;  the  particular 
circle  of  the  Spiritual  Life  was  imagined  through 
this  to  avoid  any  deformity  ;  spirituality  and  reason 
seemed  to  have  an  equally  valid  greatness.  Accord- 
ing to  this,  man  need  only  set  himself  in  spiritual 
activity  in  order  to  place  his  life  in  pure  reason.  It 
is  in  this  direction  that  the  convictions  of  all  the 
enthusiasm  of  culture  and  all  the  confessions  of 
enlightenment  considered  that  the  development  of 
mental  energies  carry  directly  within  themselves  the 
security  of  a  right  habit  and  usage  of  things,  and 
that  when  errors  arise  they  will  unloose  themselves 
easily  and  smoothly. 

In  connection  with  the  whole  course  of  our  investi- 
gation quite  a  contrary  picture  presented  itself.  The 
entanglements  vanish  in  no  manner  within  the 
province  of  the  Spiritual  Life,  but  reach  within  it 
their  highest  power  ;  the  most  difficult  hindrances 
and  disturbances  are  not  of  an  unspiritual  but  of  a 
spiritual  kind.  That  an  Absolute  Spiritual  Life  was 
visible  in  the  domain  of  man  brings,  instead  of  a 
smooth  solution,  far  more  a  sharpening  of  the  op- 
posites,  a  heightening  of  the  conflict.  Indeed,  when 
the  disturbance  threatens  to  grip  the  fundamental  ex- 
istence itself,  when  the  Spiritual  Life  is  confined  within 
itself,  doubt  penetrates  now  into  the  final  depths. 
How  docs  it  stand  now  in  connection  with  the  Divine 
that  suffers  such  an  inner  disorder  to  prevail  ?  Or 
shall  we  flee  to  the  course  of  thought  which  comes  to 
expression  in  the  noteworthy  words :  Nemo  contra 
Deum  nisi  Dens  ipse  ? 

(a)  The  Disruption  of  the  Spiritual  Life.  —The 
Spiritual   Life  begins  in  us  at  individual  points  and 


308  THE   OPrOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

first  of  all  constructs  further  Wholes ;  it  shows  the 
nearest-at-hand  view  of  things  as  scattered  into  a 
great  number  of  isolated  elements.  The  presence  of 
the  Spiritual  Life  promises  an  entire  revolution  of 
all  this.  For  in  it  the  unity  longs  for  sovereignty ; 
little  as  the  fragmentary  elements  may  be  abolished 
with  one  stroke,  yet  the  Spiritual  Life  will  undertake 
an  energetic  struggle  against  them,  and  out  of  a 
Divine  power  within  the  soul  it  will  penetrate  into 
them  victoriously ;  more  and  more  the  Spiritual  Life 
must  connect  all  into  a  Whole  and  permeate  each 
special  province  with  the  spirit  of  the  Whole.  We 
must  expect  and  aspire  after  all  this.  But  again,  the 
expectation  is  deceived,  again  a  still  greater  entangle- 
ment grows  out  of  the  alleged  solution. 

True,  in  all  this  the  idea  of  a  total-life  arises,  works, 
and  extends  itself  into  the  individual  provinces.  But 
the  elements  do  not  bend  before  this  idea,  but  seek 
with  all  their  existing  rights  to  draw  it  down  to 
themselves,  and  with  the  help  of  such  an  idea  of  a 
total-life  to  raise  themselves  to  the  level  of  all 
sovereignty.  Now  it  is  science,  now  art,  now  moral- 
ity, now  historical  religion,  now  practical  activity, 
which  make  themselves  in  turn  a  centre  of  life,  and 
seek  to  link  all  effort  to  their  own  special  arena. 
Consequently  there  originates  varied  types  of  life 
with  their  antagonistic  movements  and  their  dis- 
agreement and  division  of  fragmentary  portions  of 
spirituality  amongst  themselves.  And,  indeed,  such 
a  procedure  seems  to  issue  out  of  an  inner  necessity. 
Thus  the  Spiritual  Life  within  us  seems  to  belong  to 
no  special  and  clear  province  beyond  the  social  circle, 
and  does  not  seem  able  to  gain  the  necessary  energy 


THE    EXPLANATION   OF  THE   OPPOSITION     309 

for  high  aims  without  concentrating  itself  on  one 
aspect  of  life  alone,  and  expecting  all  safety  through 
reaching  that  aspect.  Therefore,  there  is  with  us  no 
prominent  achievement  without  a  strong  one-sided- 
ness  and  also  unfairness ;  all  greatness  thus  works 
tyrannically  and  coercively ;  all  effort,  in  the  glow 
and  passion  of  its  activities,  after  a  just  balancing  and 
a  reciprocal  reservation,  appears  as  an  intolerable 
dulness.  But  as  all  this  conflict  experiences  through 
the  idea  of  an  Absolute  Life  the  most  important 
enhancement,  the  entanglements  are  still  found 
beyond  the  existing  situation. 

The  next  result  is  a  sharp  division  of  the  various 
movements,  a  hard  conflict  on  the  whole,  the  trans- 
formation of  our  Spiritual  Life  into  a  relentless 
struggle.  And  all  hope  of  an  atoning  conclusion 
fails.  As  each  party  represents  a  right  which  must 
never  be  lost,  none  of  the  elements  of  the  movement 
must  be  destroyed,  and  thus  the  conquest  of  each 
element  carries  in  its  over-exertion  a  turn  to  a  lower 
level,  and  further,  the  prospect  opens  itself  upon  an 
ebb  and  How,  upon  a  fluctuation  hither  and  thither. 
When,  however,  the  one  displaces  the  other  ever  anew, 
ever  anew  the  ideals  and  the  convictions  change 
suddenly  into  full  opposites.  Does  not  the  whole 
thing  then  become  a  mere  play  and  caprice?  True, 
the  thought  of  an  all-encompassing  and  all  governing 
truth  is  there,  but  it  does  not  seem  able  to  mould  itself 
without  being  under  the  power  of  the  merely  indi- 
vidual formations,  without  serving  the  ambition  of 
these  isolated  formations  for  an  absolute  monarchy, 
and  without  working  for  the  sharpening  of  the  dis- 
ruption whose  overcoming  was  set  forth  as  a  goal. 


(10  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

This  presumption,  however,  to  be  a  Whole  in  the 
particular  is  believed  to  be  atoned  for  by  the  individual 
movements ;  they  will  make  some  amends  through 
the  shaping  of  the  meaning  of  the  true  and  the  false, 
the  spiritual  and  the  human,  freedom  and  necessity, 
which  in  their  natural  state  are  entangled  in  one 
another,  and  which  nowhere  long  to  reach  pure  reason. 
Therefore,  it  is  only  out  of  the  Whole  that  the 
necessary  division  of  things  results ;  it  is  only  in  the 
connections  of  life  framed  in  an  inner  unity  that  there 
results  a  transposition  into  full  freedom  and  original 
activism — into  an  illumination  and  spiritualisation  of 
the  total  existence ;  it  is  only  out  of  this  that  each 
province  receives  definite  boundaries  within  which  it 
has,  in  its  own  way,  to  represent  the  Whole  and 
work  for  its  further  development.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  individual  formations  in  their  exclusiveness 
allow  the  good  and  the  indispensable  to  flow  along- 
side of  the  perverse  and  the  problematic,  life  degener- 
ates into  the  most  painful  dilemma.  What  life  dare 
not  miss  as  a  truth  cannot  possibly  be  extracted  out 
of  the  region  of  the  affixed  error ;  but,  however,  if 
life  ignores  the  error,  the  truth  quickly  fades  and 
vanishes.  Therefore  life  must  at  the  same  time 
affirm  and  deny,  accept  and  reject ;  everywhere  truth 
disperses  into  error  because  the  particular  rules  the 
Whole,  and  forces  its  own  nature  on  the  Whole. 

The  total-life  needs  Art  for  its  emancipation 
and  thorough  cultivation,  for  Art  makes  Truth 
significant  and  joyous  at  the  same  time;  Art 
baptizes  Truth  in  the  element  of  Beauty,  but  as 
soon  as  truth  rules  the  Whole  through  the  develop- 
ment  of  an   aesthetic    view  of  life,  it  submits  to  a 


THE   EXPLANATION    OF  THE   OPPOSITION      311 

pleasurable,  playful,  and  hyper-sensitive  direction  of 
life.     Science    brings  forth  an  energetic  clarification 
and    consolidation,    an    ascent    of  man   to    a  world- 
consciousness  and  to  a  life  which  proceeds  from  the 
expansion  and  truth  of  things ;   but  science  is  not 
able  to  become  the  sole  mistress  without  engendering 
through  its  merely  intellectual  culture  an  excessive 
self-consciousness  of  the  work  of  thought,  and  turning 
the   tasks   of  life  into  problems  of  knowledge,  and 
finally  injuring  the  development  of  an  independent 
inwardness   as  well  as  of  the  fresh  apprehension  of 
the  immediate  movement.     A  manly  strength  and  a 
consolidation   of  character   which   the   whole   being 
needs  originate  out  of  morality,  but  a  specific  moral 
conduct   of   life   is  wont  to  become  hard,  stubborn, 
and   self-conscious.     Over   against   this,  religion  de- 
velops  more  gentleness  and  fervour,  but  to  fill  the 
life  exclusively  with  these  leads  easily  into  the  danger 
of  turning   aside    from   the  work  of  the  world  and 
of  revolving   simply    in    one's    own    inactivity,    and, 
finally,  of  transferring  to  the  Divine  the  claims  which 
humanity    makes    upon    us — the    very    qualities    by 
which    we    are  able  to  know  the  Divine  at  all.     A 
counter-effect  is  brought  about  by  the  practico-social 
life  with   its  development  of  the   contact    with    the 
environment  and  with  its  participation  in  the  energies 
of  the  ordinary  everyday  experience;  and  this  works 
in  the  direction  of  greater  security  and  skill,  of  fresh 
courage  to   face  life,  and  of  a  joyous   self-existence. 
Bui    as    soon    as    such    a    mode    of   life    conquers   the 
whole  man,  it  drives  him  into  a  shallow   activity  and 
into  a  soulless  alienation.      Thus  each  isolated  method 
leads  into  error  as  soon  as  it  becomes  a   Whole    to 


318  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

itself,  and  yet  each  individual  method  will  not  give 
up  its  claim  to  become  a  Whole,  and  puts  every  nerve 
forth  to  become  such  a  AVhole. 

Through  such  a  dispersal  the  conduct  of  life 
engenders  a  characteristic  obscurity  which  arrogantly 
tends  to  despise  all  the  provinces  except  its  own, 
whilst  it  rejects  such  a  treatment  from  any  other  side 
as  an  unbearable  monstrosity.  The  {esthetic  mode 
of  thought  feels  itself  superior  in  the  fineness  of  its 
sensations  and  the  distinction  of  its  taste ;  the 
scientific  mode  feels  its  superiority  in  the  expansive- 
ness  of  its  view  and  the  clearness  of  its  insight ;  the 
moral  mode  feels  its  superiority  in  the  strength  of  its 
virtues  ;  the  religious  mode  feels  its  superiority  in  the 
inwardness  of  its  soul-life  and  its  being  well-pleasing 
unto  God ;  the  practico-social  mode  feels  its  superi- 
ority in  the  secure  rule  of  immediate  existence. 
Each  misses  the  ideals  of  the  rest,  and  no  wonder 
that  each  easily  defeats  the  others.  Thus,  through  a 
variegated  colouring  we  obtain  usually  a  pharisaic 
self-consciousness,  and,  along  with  it,  a  disfiguration 
of  the  Spiritual  Life  into  a  factious  life  which  is  as 
unavoidable  as  it  is  intolerable. 

But  how  shall  the  substance  of  the  Spiritual  Life 
conquer  if  each  element  strives  against  the  others, 
and  all  contend  against  all,  and  in  the  strife  destroy 
their  best  energy  ?  On  account  of  this,  such  strife, 
in  the  course  of  history,  will  increase  rather  than 
decrease.  For  in  spite  of  all  the  vacillations  of 
individuals,  divergences  increase  on  the  whole,  and 
the  characteristic  development  of  each  particular 
province  takes  place  as  well.  Modern  times 
especially  constitutes  a  significant  period  through  its 


THE   EXPLANATION   OF  THE   OPPOSITION     313 

dissolution  of  the  Middle  Ages  mode  of  culture,  but 
the  danger  became  ever  greater  through  the  develop- 
ment of  one-sided  formations,  through  a  disintegration 
of  the  Spiritual  Life  and  the  transformation  of  our 
existence  into  an  irreconcilable  struggle.  Also,  it 
becomes  ever  clearer  that  the  entanglement  lies  far 
above  all  will  and  capacity  of  mere  individuals ;  the 
individual  appears  here  all  along  as  a  child  of  his 
age ;  the  waves  of  his  age  play  with  him  and  carry 
him  far  out  until  he  becomes  without  a  will  of  his 
own,  and  merely  floats  on  the  current  of  the  external 
circumstances. 

The  idea  of  a  Spiritual  Life  is  not  able  to  prevail 
against  such  a  discord,  but  is  considered  a  specially 
evil  defect,  and  it  is  driven  into  stubborn  doubt  at 
the  moment  a  Divine  power  is  recognised  in  the  idea 
of  such  a  spiritual  total-life.  Then  the  Divine  seems 
too  weak  to  become  the  ruler  of  the  human  forma- 
tion of  the  Spiritual  Life  ;  indeed,  what  is  present  as 
a  stimulation  of  the  Spiritual  Life  seems  to  fall  under 
the  power  of  a  lower  order,  and  to  heighten  the  fancy 
and  confusion  of  that  order.  How  can  a  Divine 
work  thus  against  His  own  aims  ? 

(ft)  The  Disintegration  within  the  Spiritual  Life. — 
The  opposition  to  the  unity  of  the  Spiritual  Life 
reaches  even  deeper:  disintegrations  unite  themselves 
together  in  the  very  foundation,  and  produce  a 
dispersal  of  elements  and  conflicting  formations. 
Three  such  disintegrations  have  already  been  noticed 
in  our  investigation.  First  of  all,  our  investigation 
considered  the  cleft  between  subject  and  object- 
between  the  individual  consciousness  and  its  external 
world.      From  the  beginning  this  cleft  checks  progress 


;JU  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

towards  truth,  but  it  seemed  to  draw  a  conclusion 
concerning  the  opening  of  a  definite  spiritual  and 
essential  life  within  the  particular  domain  of  man. 
For  along-  with  the  cleft  there  appears  within  the 
domain  of  activity  the  dawning  of  a  reality ;  there 
originates  a  world  which  is  contiguous  with  the  self 
from  within  and  not  from  without,  but  such  a  world 
becomes  our  true  self  through  the  binding  of  its 
elements  into  a  unity.  That  this  new  world,  first  of 
all,  found  itself  in  opposition  to  the  old  world,  and 
only  gradually  subjects  it,  cannot  astonish  and  terrify 
us.  This  is  certainly  to  be  expected  in  connection 
with  a  movement  which  arises  towards  a  new  direction, 
and  which  slowly  yet  securely  advances  over  against 
the  cleft.  But  when  this  expectation  of  overcoming 
the  cleft  is  unfulfilled,  even  the  presence  of  a  higher 
order  of  things  far  more  heightens  than  lessens  the 
problem.  Not  only  is  the  idea  of  unity  unable  to 
draw  the  being  to  itself,  and  mould  it  out  of  itself, 
but  it  works  in  the  direction  of  giving  an  edge  to  the 
situation,  as  each  of  the  two  sides — subject  and  object 
— is  driven,  through  its  indifference  to  the  unity,  to 
an  attempt  to  tear  the  total-life  into  pieces  and  to 
bring  the  opposite  side  entirely  under  itself.  In  the 
one  direction,  the  particular  works  of  man  emancipate 
themselves,  they  step  forward  as  independent  powers, 
they  transform  the  life  of  the  soul  into  mere  means 
for  their  own  necessities,  they  coerce  ever  stronger 
all  inwardness  and  mechanise  more  and  more  all 
existence.  Hut  the  progressive  absorption  of  the 
subject  contributes  finally  towards  the  overthrow  of 
mans  powers.  For  the  more  the  activities  loosen 
themselves  from  a  soul-foundation,  the  less  can  they 


THE   EXPLANATION    OF  THE  OPPOSITION     315 

signify  a  connection  by  themselves,  and  the  more 
must  their  own  energy  and  greatness  sink  until  their 
inability  to  inspire  the  whole  of  life  appears  quite 
clearly.  Then  comes  the  rotation  to  the  other  side : 
there  results  now  an  inversion  of  the  prior  course  of 
work.  The  subject  now  raises  itself  in  a  gigantic 
manner  and  disconnects  itself  to  the  utmost  from  the 
object  in  order  to  construct  all  reality  by  itself.  Its 
own  individual  situation  becomes  its  world  ;  the 
enjoyment  of  its  sensations  and  the  refinement  of  its 
dispositions  become  its  life.  But  if  the  subject 
follows  exclusively  on  this  path,  the  reality  more 
and  more  internally  and  externally  flies  away.  For 
the  subject  is  not  able  to  preserve  its  own  unity  on 
account  of  its  growing  resignation  to  a  mere  senti- 
ment ;  it  degenerates  into  purely  isolated  and  inces- 
santly changing  positions,  and  its  existence  falls  more 
and  more  into  the  transient  and  the  shadowy.  On 
the  other  hand,  a  great  longing  will  again  awaken  for 
the  object  as  an  indispensable  support  for  our  life, 
and  thus  once  more  the  power  reaches  the  other  side. 
This  dialectic,  in  which  each  side  through  its  isolation 
and  overstrain  destroys  itself  and  returns  to  the  other 
side,  shows  clearly  the  necessity  of  both  sides  to 
instruct  one  another.  Hut  with  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  a  homogeneousness  we  do  not  gain  a  living 
unity;  all  merely  Individual  effort  for  a  Whole  does 
not  free  us  from  the  power  of  a  lifeless  disunion, 
as  our  own  times  with  their  vacillation  to  and  fro 
between  ;i  soulless  technics  and  a  fanciful  senti- 
ment show  with  painful  clearness.  The  presence 
of  an  Absolute  Life  which  shall  be  above  the 
opposites    has    as    yet    only    heightened    the    longing 


316  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

for    unity   without  conferring   the  energy  to  satisfy 
the  longing. 

Another  evil  cleft  from  which  the  Absolute  Life 
.should  be  freed  is  that  between  energy  and  character. 
Experience  from  of  old  has  shown  how  the  energy 
has  often  mangled  the  character  and  the  character  the 
energy,  and  how  life  has  entered  into  a  blind  natural 
impulse  on  the  one  hand  and  into  a  powerless  spiritu- 
ality on  the  other  hand.  Such  a  situation  ought  to 
alter  itself  through  the  presence  of  an  essential  and 
cultivated  spirituality.  For  within  the  province  of 
such  a  spirituality  there  is  no  definite  energy  which 
does  not  carry  within  itself  an  independent  appropria- 
tion of  that  spiritual  world,  and,  along  with  this, 
acquires  a  moral  character ;  at  the  same  time,  the 
character  raises  itself  from  a  merely  passive  condition 
to  an  energetic  act — an  act  in  which  the  whole  soul  - 
connects  itself  together.  Thus,  through  the  ennoble- 
ment of  energy  and  the  strengthening  of  character  an 
inner  unity  is  reached,  and  a  new  type  of  life  is  gained 
in  which  the  strong  is  good  and  the  good  is  strong. 
It  is  a  matter  of  regret  that  such  a  type  of  life  signifies 
for  us  more  of  a  distant  ideal  than  of  a  present  reality. 
For  not  only  does  the  antithesis  contain  undiminished 
energy  in  the  direction  mentioned  over  the  whole 
breadth  of  existence,  but  the  attempt  at  emancipation 
seems  to  it  to  lie  back  still  deeper  in  the  spiritual. 
Also,  from  an  earlier  simple-mindedness  the  idea  has 
more  and  more  heightened,  so  that  one  of  the  sides 
raises  itself  above  the  other  as  alone  of  value,  and 
handles  its  opposite  side  as  superfluous  and  even  evil. 
Thus,  on  one  side,  we  find  the  exclusiveness  of 
spiritual   energy — great   diabolical    formations  which 


THE    EXPLANATION   OF  THE    OPPOSITION   317 

are  completely  absorbed  in  the  victorious  progress 
of  their  own  doings  and  creations,  and  treat  all  else 
with  supreme  indifference ;  which  are  served  by  the 
events  of  life,  and  to  which  fate  itself  appears  to 
pay  homage,  although  their  course  lies  on  the  other 
side  of  good  and  evil ;  thus  all  moral  judgment 
appears  as  a  subsidiary  consideration  and  even  as 
an  unbecoming  intrusion.  In  all  this  there  lies  a 
wantonness  which  not  only  leads  sooner  or  later 
to  external  ruin,  but  which  also  from  the  outset 
damages  the  spiritual  character  of  the  achievement. 
And,  over  against  this  cult  of  mere  energy,  we  find 
a  cult  of  mere  disposition,  the  self-conceit  and  self- 
righteousness  of  a  disposition  separated  from  action, 
and  resting  exclusively  in  itself.  Now,  what  happens 
within  pure  inwardness  may,  in  its  ultimate  valuation, 
surpass  in  lustre  the  most  brilliant  performance  in 
the  moulding  of  the  world.  But  when  a  frame  of 
mind  has  no  contact  with  the  entanglements  and 
temptations  of  the  world,  when  the  disposition  is 
not  turned  into  action,  when  there  is  no  struggle 
with  external  things,  when  man  revolves,  from  the 
outset,  within  an  alleged  superiority  of  his  own  mind, 
then  life  threatens  to  sink  into  inactivity,  the  weak- 
ness of  the  soul  is  reckoned  as  a  merit,  and  in  such 
a  numbness  and  smallness  of  nature  a  pharisaic 
self-complacency  arises.  And  the  self-complacency 
of  weakness  is  even  more  painful  than  that  of  strength. 
But  how  will  the  disposition  become  the  soul  of  a 
great  lit'-,  and  how  will  the  cleft  between  wishing 
and  achieving  he  spanned?  Once  again,  we  have 
not,  amongst  men  found  those  things  together,  which, 
in  themselves,  require  each  other. 


318  THE   OPPOSITION  TO   RELIGION 

In  corporate  life  that  conflict  appears  in  the  discord 
between  culture  and  morality  (especially  as  repre- 
sented in  religion).  Culture,  with  its  development 
of  energy,  is  wont  to  treat  morality  as  a  subsidiary 
thing,  and  to  sacrifice  it  to  its  own  ends  ;  morality 
develops,  over  against  this,  a  consciousness  of  inner 
superiority  without  being  able,  however,  to  develop 
a  corresponding  power.  Morality,  nevertheless, 
shows  itself  energetic  enough  to  reveal  the  limits 
of  culture,  and  to  check  men  from  finding  full  satis- 
faction in  it.  Thus  each  tendency  is  able  to  break 
the  exclusiveness  of  the  other,  but  neither  is  able  to 
reach  an  exclusive  rule.  What,  however,  does  the 
whole  of  the  Spiritual  Life  gain  through  such  a 
mutual  hindrance  ? 

The  third  antithesis  is  that  of  spiritual  sub- 
stance and  psychic  existence — an  antithesis  expressed 
by  the  noological  and  the  psychological  methods. 
This  antithesis  is,  first  of  all,  brought  to  the  surface 
through  the  idea  of  the  essential  development  of  our 
nature,  and  only  therewith  does  it  become  clear  that, 
without  the  attainment  by  the  Spiritual  Life  of  an 
independence  over  against  the  purely  psychic  pro- 
cedure, there  is  no  content  of  life  and  no  connected 
spiritual  world.  But  at  the  same  time,  there  becomes 
apparent  the  fact  that  such  an  elevated  Life  realises 
itself  only  in  the  form  of  psychic  existence,  and  that 
its  development  proceeds  only  through  the  move- 
ments and  experiences  of  such  a  form.  Thus,  as 
necessary  as  a  clear  separation  of  both  series  becomes 
the  constant  reciprocity  of  both.  Here,  also,  the 
experience  of  life  shows,  in  the  main,  a  pointed  and 
severe  enmity.     On  the  one  side,  we  find  misjudg- 


THE    EXPLANATION   OF   THE    OPPOSITION      319 

ing  of  the  incomplete  state  and  limitation  of  human 
Spiritual  Life,  a  rash  seizure  of  the  substance  and  the 
fixing  of  one's  self  on  it,  and  through  this,  however, 
a  cutting  off  any  further  movement,  thus  causing  a 
coercion  of  all  initiative  and  a  premature  conclusion 
of  the  meaning  of  life.  On  the  other  side,  we  find 
the  attempt  to  gather  up  fragments  of  a  content  and 
of  a  spiritual  world  out  of  the  movements  of  the 
immediate  psychic  life ;  and  thus  we  obtain  a  good 
deal  of  freshness,  movement,  and  variation,  but  on 
account  of  the  inward  contradiction  of  the  facts  we 
find  a  constant  wish  for  more  than  can  ever  possibly 
be,  we  find  a  fraudulent  acquisition  of  the  unprovable 
and  a  great  danger  of  shallowness.  Thus  the  opposi- 
tion between  substance  and  existence-form  shapes 
itself  into  a  disorder  of  the  depth  and  freedom  of  the 
nature  ;  the  depth  threatens  to  become  rigid,  and  the 
freedom  superficial.  This  strife  permeates  the  whole 
ramifications  of  life  :  no  other  opposition  drives  men 
into  such  contending  camps,  and  none  engenders  so 
many  parties.  It  is  thus  to-day  in  the  particular 
province  of  Philosophy.  For  what  other  are  the 
deepest  ground  and  the  strongest  energy  of  the 
divisions  of  thinkers  but  that  one  section  takes  its 
Stand  on  the  necessity  of  the  Spiritual  Life,  and 
thai  the  other  takes  its  stand  on  the  circumstances 
and  experiences  of  man  ?  The  struggle  between 
idealism  and  realism,  the  a  priori  and  empiricism, 
metaphysics  and  psychology  theyalJ  originate  in  the 
lasl  resorl  oul  of  the  same  root.  How  can  the  presence 
of  an  Absolute  Life  be  sustained  when  the  movement 

towards  truth  itself  is  retarded  by  the  strife  of  parties. 
and  remains  let  I  cod  by  such  a  situation  \ 


880  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

(7)  The  Impotence  of  Morality.  —  After  all  the 
upheaval  we  have  already  observed,  there  remains 
the  very  last  means  of  escape,  i.e.  morality  in  its 
existence-for-self  as  a  kingdom  of  pure  character,  as 
the  decision  concerning  the  total-direction  of  effort. 
However  few  results  such  a  decision  may  possess 
from  an  external  point  of  view,  however  many 
hindrances  and  limits  it  meets  within  the  soul  itself, 
there  originates  with  it  an  original  province  of  life,  a 
full  existence-for-itself  of  the  inwardness  of  life  which 
all  the  power  of  the  enemy  cannot  possess.  Here 
the  soul  longs  for  a  secure  superiority  to  the  world, 
and  gains  also  the  indestructible  certainty  of  a  new 
order  of  things.  Thus,  many  epochs  became  the 
possessors  of  all  this,  and  later  antiquity  especially 
made  morality  a  fast  bulwark  against  all  the  doubts 
and  toils  of  life. 

All  this  heightens  itself  powerfully  when  the  turn 
to  religion  posits  the  decision  upon  the  whole  of  the 
universe,  and  when  the  decision  allows  itself  to  be 
carried  by  an  Absolute  Life.  True,  the  problem 
becomes  far  greater,  but  also  the  certainty  of  man 
becomes  far  more  joyous.  Indeed,  that  turn  origin- 
ates from  difficult  entanglements  of  a  moral  kind, 
and  an  immediate  conquest  is  not  to  be  expected, 
but  an  inward  strengthening  and  a  victorious  ascent 
are  certainly  longed  for  by  us. 

Do  things  stand  thus  in  the  reality  of  our  experi- 
ence ?  First  of  all,  this  is  certain :  religion  shows 
far  more  the  inadequacy  than  the  sufficiency  of  our 
actions  ;  concerning  the  judgment  of  the  moral  situa- 
tion of  man  the  Standard,  for  example,  decides  before 
all  else  the  nature  of  what  we  construct,  and  shows 


THE   EXPLANATION    OF  THE    OPPOSITION     321 

what  we  ought  to  construct.  Now,  religion  with  its 
relationship  to  the  Divine  reveals  such  an  Absolute 
Standard  ;  the  Divine  valuation  displaces  all  merely 
human  convictions  of  things.  While  the  latter  state 
of  things  coerces  the  man  within  the  man,  its 
judgment  with  all  its  relativity  loses  its  edge.  The 
ordinary  situation  of  human  actions  constructs  its 
standard,  but  what  remains  behind  such  a  situation 
condemns  the  situation ;  what  steps  perceptibly  be- 
yond the  ordinary  situation  is  praised  as  being  some- 
how great,  and  is  honoured  as  a  service  which  is  not 
unconditionally  required  from  man.  Over  against 
all  this,  the  Divine  valuation  of  things  raises  itself 
and  transforms  the  ordinary  valuation,  because  its 
claims  rest  upon  absolute  perfection.  Measured  out 
of  the  infinite,  all  the  differences  of  the  finite  vanish, 
and  there  remains  only  the  common  boundless  expanse 
of  space  ;  and  it  is  through  the  recognition  of  some- 
thing of  this  kind  that  all  moral  greatness  and  all 
moral  sen  ice  of  man  develop.  Thus  it  has  happened 
everywhere  where  the  religious  idea  dawned  with  full 
originality,  as  in  the  beginnings  of  Christianity  and 
in  the  rise  of  Protestantism.  It  is  only  in  the 
weakening  of  that  idea  that  human  valuations  gain 
so  much  ground  as  they  have  gained  in  Catholicism. 

The  problem  intensifies  itself,  however,  in  the 
degree  the  spiritual  and  essential  mode  of  religion 
Longs  for  a  recognition,  and  in  the  degree  the  con- 
viction is  found  thai  there  stands  in  question  not 
merely  some  kind  of  development  in  certain  direc- 
tions, but  the  essential  development  of  the  whole 
of  our  nature.  After  this,  the  revealed  inadequacy 
meets  the  whole  of  our  existence;  then   all   which   is 


888  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

termed  customary  morality  appears  as  a  thing  which 
belongs  far  too  much  to  the  mere  shallowness  and 
far  too  little  to  the  substance  of  the  soul.  And  when 
the  inadequacy  presents  itself  as  the  all-sufficient  and 
the  all-encompassing,  an  inexorable  struggle  of  de- 
finite morality  as  against  a  mere  semblance  of  it  is 
inevitable. 

Thus,  all  development  of  morality  under  the 
influence  of  religion  gave  a  continuous  lower  valua- 
tion to  customary  moral  values.  That  which  in 
worthy  achievements  fastens  itself  to  bare  natural 
energy  must  finally  crystallise  into  a  non-moral ;  that 
which  works  within  the  particular  circle  of  human 
society  towards  the  curtailment  of  selfishness  and 
towards  mutual  advancement  is  much  too  external 
and  is  afflicted  with  far  too  much  pretence  to  enter 
into  the  balance  as  an  absolute  valuation.  But 
placed  in  a  "  beyond "  to  the  social  formation  of 
things,  all  human  morality  appears  insipid,  vacillating, 
and  hollow.  It  is  a  virtue  out  of  a  defect  caused 
by  temptations  or  by  the  equilibrium  of  errors  ;  a 
legality  which  was  never  placed  on  trial ;  a  love 
which  remained  true  out  of  mere  custom  and  because 
it  knew  no  other ;  a  belief  and  trust  which  never  had 
doubts,  and  which  had  no  need  to  prove  anything ; 
a  sacrifice  which  at  the  same  time  brought  forth  much 
profit.  Over  against  such  weaknesses  we  find  the 
evil  power  of  the  passions,  and  man  torn  through 
them  from  his  better  insight,  and,  indeed,  against 
his  better  will,  and  all  the  remaining  fully-recognised 
excellences  blown  out  of  his  consciousness  as  a  dream 
and  a  shadow.  And  over  all  the  particular  passions 
we  find,  however,  the  egoism  with  its  loosening   of 


THE   EXPLANATION   OF   THE    OPPOSITION     323 

the  individual  from  world-connections,  and  from  its 
relationship  to  the  infinity  of  the  universe,  brought 
to  a  state  of  poverty.  This  egoism,  through  its 
inversion  of  the  world  and  so  fundamentally  different 
from  natural  self-preservation,  seems  to  grow  not 
weaker  but  stronger  with  the  advance  of  culture ; 
the  historical  movement  may  vary  its  form  but  such 
a  movement  leaves  the  substance  untouched.  Such 
a  banishment  of  effort  into  the  small  self  becomes 
intolerable  when  the  turn  to  his  essential  nature  and 
its  cultivation  holds  definitely  before  man  a  new  self 
in  the  Spiritual  Life ;  now  the  hold  upon  the  small 
and  shallow  produces  a  self-alienation  of  man  and  a 
destruction  of  his  own  nature.  And  yet  it  persists 
and  draws  ever  the  new  movement  back  to  itself. 

Thus  the  inadequacy  of  all  human  morality  lies 
clearly  on  the  surface.  But  what  harm  can  this  in- 
adequacy produce  if  over  against  it  a  Divine  energy 
dawns  and  a  superhuman  life  kindles  itself?  Such  a 
turn  to  a  "  better  "  would  then  stand  more  visibly  and 
more  convincingly  before  our  eyes  !  But  in  the  mean- 
time such  obviousness  and  energy  of  conviction  fail 
to  appear.  Not  only  does  religion  seem  to  alter  but 
little  the  total  situation  of  life,  but  the  entrance  of 
the  "higher"  works  in  the  first  place  principally  in 
driving  out  the  contradictions  and  in  the  awakening 
of  otherwise  slumbering  oppositions;  thus  the  in- 
version reaches  its  most  external  height,  whilst  the 
•-good,"  with  the  acknowledgment  of  its  highest 
worth,  is  dismissed,  injured,  and  destroyed.  When 
many  thinkers  of  a  rationalistic  turn  of  mind  declare 

it  as   impossible    that  such   an   activity,    which   works 
against   one's  own   conclusions  and  which  disapproves 


324  THE   OPPOSITION    TO    RELIGION 

of  a  Divine,  can  be  itself  Divine,  they  misconstrue  the 
abyss  o\'  human  nature  and  contradict  the  experiences 
of  humanity.  For  in  the  ''great"  and  the  "small" 
there  is  an  evil  beyond  mere  egoism — there  is  envy 
and  malicious  joy  over  the  calamities  of  others,  hate 
and  jealousy ;  and  where  one's  own  welfare  is  not 
touched  at  all,  there  is  an  antipathy  towards  the 
Great  and  the  Divine,  and  a  pleasure  in  the  deface- 
ment and  destruction  of  the  Good.  Through  this 
the  bad  things  mount  to  positive  evil — to  the  dia- 
bolical. The  burlesque  figure  of  a  devil  has  vanished 
from  our  figurative  ideas,  but  it  has  not  vanished  out 
of  human  nature.  Further,  the  mysterious  fact  of 
evil  as  a  positive  opposition  to  the  "  Good  "  has  not 
ceased  to  occupy  the  minds  of  the  deepest  thinkers, 
and  in  spite  of  all  attempted  reconciliation  the  pro- 
blem has  ever  anew  broken  out ;  it  stands  clearly 
before  us  at  the  present  day  not  only  through  the 
teachings  of  Kant  and  Schopenhauer,  but  far  more 
through  the  particular  experience  of  modern  life 
itself. 

Evil  is  thus  in  the  highest  degree  to  be  understood 
as  a  testimony  of  freedom,  and  the  conception  of 
moral  wrong  will  never  allow  itself  to  be  expelled  in 
spite  of  all  attempts.  But  although  moral  wrong 
endows  evil  with  its  edge,  it  does  not  engender  all 
evil.  But  what  makes  the  situation  of  man  so 
especially  painful  is  the  fact  that  the  total  arrange- 
ment of  life — which  at  least  leads  man  if  it  does  not 
force  him — becomes  a  failure  even  with  man's  own 
activities.  Out  of  the  hand  of  nature  man  receives 
the  obligation  of  an  incessant  self-preservation  which 
often  drives    men    against    one   another,    and  allows 


THE    EXPLANATION   OF   THE   OPPOSITION     325 

them  to  welcome  the  injury  of  one  another  on  ac- 
count of  their  own  advantage.  Civilised  life  heightens 
these  entanglements  through  its  multiplication  and 
refinement  of  wants  and  needs,  through  its  manifold 
complications  and  the  narrow  concentration  of  men, 
through  its  strong  blaze  of  ambition  and  impulse  for 
gain — all  these  are  deemed  necessary  for  our  self- 
preservation.  Tims  the  release  of  energy  and  the 
restless  extension  of  effort  appear  self-evident  and 
unassailable ;  the  common  atmosphere,  the  social 
organisations,  etc.,  shape  themselves  in  accordance 
with  such  a  notion.  And  if  we  proceed  only  a  step 
further  we  find  the  admission  of  merely  instinctive 
attitudes  into  entire  self-activity ;  we  find  that  which 
occurs  in  daily  life  elevated  into  a  principle ;  and 
thus  the  real  thing  which  matters  appears  as  a  pain- 
ful inversion  and  degenerates  into  adverse  criticism. 
But  this  criticism  grows  out  of  relationships  which 
carry  our  whole  life,  and,  along  with  it,  our  spiritual 
development ! 

How  shall  we  disengage  ourselves  from  such  an 
entanglement?  And  what  becomes  of  the  presence 
of  the  Divine  through  such  an  upheaval  of  morality? 
In  so  far  as  the  actual  situation  has  been  acknow- 
ledged, it.  has  to  all  appearance  strengthened  less  the 
reason  of  our  existence  than  brought  the  unreason  to 
a  clear  consciousness. 

t.   The  Darkness  of  the  Human  Situation 

Our  attention  hitherto  was  specially  directed  to- 
wards the  entanglements  in  the  actions  of  man,  but 
we  have  also  to  estimate  his  condition  and  i h<-  forma 
tion  of  his  abilities.      In  connection  with  these  latter 


326  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

the  matter  does  not  deal  merely  with  man's  subjective 
happiness  but  with  the  Spiritual  Life;  it  deals  with 
the  question — whether  such  a  Life  through  its  founda- 
tion in  an  Absolute  Being  gains  the  energy  to  enforce 
its  way  to  the  external  world  and  to  subject  the 
universe  to  its  own  ends  ?  What  brings  about  the 
formation  of  the  value  of  values  should  certainly  be 
able  to  reign  and  rule  also  in  our  circle. 

Before  all  else  the  desire  of  man  appears  in  his 
effort  to  reach  spirituality  through  the  aid  of  a  power 
superior  to  the  world,  to  reach  it  especially  in  a  hard 
struggle  against  an  alien,  dark,  and  powerful  world. 
Indeed,  the  more  the  threads  of  the  phenomena  of 
the  universe  run  tangled  through  one  another,  the 
more  indispensable  it  is  to  link  all  human  aims 
to  a  power  superior  to  the  world  ;  the  harder  the 
oppositions  of  the  world-environment  are,  the  more 
urgent  is  the  hope  placed  upon  an  over-world  help. 
Such  a  power  is  to  raise  our  own  potency  out 
of  its  insufficiency ;  it  is  to  prepare  a  secure  path 
for  our  activity  through  a  deep  darkness ;  and  it  is 
to  transform  the  hindrance  and  opposition  into  a 
conclusive  advancement.  It  must  raise  man  im- 
measurably in  the  inmost  of  his  being  and  strengthen 
him  in  his  courage  to  face  life,  so  that  he  may  be  able 
to  consider  himself  an  object  of  the  care  of  an  over- 
world  power  and  wisdom,  and  also  of  eternal  love. 
Upon  the  lower  levels  much  may  mix  together  as 
self-love  and  even  vanity,  but  on  the  higher  level  all 
this  vanishes  before  the  unique  end  of  the  spiritual 
maintenance  and  elevation  of  man. 

In  reality  this  idea  is  so  indispensable  to  religion 
that  an  entire  renunciation  of  it  has  been  conceived 


THE   EXPLANATION    OF  THE   OPPOSITION     327 

as  the  destruction  of  religion  itself.  In  any  case, 
every  conception  of  religion  must  feel  anxious  for  the 
realisation  of  such  an  idea.  If  and  how  such  a 
realisation  can  happen  does  not  concern  us  at  this 
point  of  the  inquiry ;  here  the  question  is  not  how 
the  gain  of  such  a  realisation  reaches  the  idea  of  a 
Providence,  but  whether  the  idea  seems  sufficiently 
clear  over  against  the  condition  of  the  world  so  as  to 
win  the  seeker  for  itself.  It  is  a  bad  mistake  to  mix 
together  the  matter-of-fact  of  experience  and  the 
claims  of  religious  belief ;  for  he  who  carries  carelessly 
into  his  nearest  view  of  things  what  seemed  to  him 
from  such  a  view  to  be  self-evident,  but  what  in 
reality  becomes  possible  only  after  a  great  conquest, 
diminishes  not  only  the  expansion  of  life  but  also 
endangers  the  truth  of  life. 

We  must  ask,  therefore,  without  any  prejudice, 
whether  the  surrounding  objects  allow  us  to  infer  of  a 
movement  of  the  universe  in  the  direction  of  spirit- 
uality, and  whether  a  superior  furtherance  of  a  spiritual 
striving  of  man  clearly  appears.  Doubtless  there  are 
numerous  examples  and  modes  of  life  which  create 
the  impression  of  a  well-marked  directivity ;  number- 
less threads  are  discovered  which  bind  themselves 
together  and  produce  a  favourable  final  result; 
dangers  are  averted,  and  aids,  beyond  all  expectation, 
are  gained.  Hut,  too.  the  impression  of  the  system- 
atic arrangement   of  things  can  occasionally  produce 

a  result  of  the  blindest  gamble  of  things;  and  in 
order  to  estimate  with  any  certainty  whether  any 
evidence  of  a  higher  guidance  and  love  is  to  be  found 
in  the  accommodating  behaviour  of  things,  more  is 

under  consideration  than   a   purely  solitary  event  ;   we 


328  THE   OPPOSITION    TO   RELIGION 

must  be  able  to  know  the  relationship  of  actual 
instances  to  possible  ones ;  we  must  estimate  the 
ratio  of  the  gains  to  the  blanks  ;  and  all  this  we  are 
not  able  to  do. 

The  impression  of  many  opposite  kinds  of  ex- 
periences associates  itself  with  such  a  darkness  as  we 
find  in  things  around  us.  For  we  observe  that  there 
remains  in  man  himself  not  only  much  goodwill  and 
many  busy  activities  without  the  needed  aids  from 
above,  but  which  break  in  pieces  before  they  reach 
their  highest  ends ;  there  remains  not  only  much 
spiritual  energy  and  warm  love  unrealised — and  in 
other  cases  much  of  all  this  is  painfully  lacking — but 
we  also  discover  enchainments  of  phenomena  which 
seem  to  aim  at  the  creation  of  great  misery,  and 
which  drive  man  with  unmerciful  callousness  over 
the  brink  of  an  abyss.  The  faintest  hint  would  have 
sufficed  to  hold  him  back  from  such  a  catastrophe, 
but  this  does  not  appear,  and  consequently  destruction 
takes  its  course.  Petty  accidents  destroy  life  and 
happiness ;  a  moment  annihilates  the  most  toilsome 
work.  Often,  also,  we  discover  a  chaotic  medley,  a 
sudden  overthrow  of  all  potency,  a  seeming  in- 
difference towards  all  human  weal  and  woe,  a  blind 
groping  in  the  dark ;  we  discover  deep- veiled  possi- 
bilities constantly  sweeping  as  dark  clouds  over  man 
and  occasionally  descending  as  a  crashing  lightning. 
But,  also,  man's  own  destiny,  as  it  were,  plays  with 
him,  raising  hopes  soon  to  destroy  them  and  pre- 
paring energies  soon  to  annihilate  them.  And  in  all 
this  we  are  to  view  an  order  of  reason  and  a  kingdom 
of  love ! 

The  method  in  which  the  customary  development 


THE   EXPLANATION   OF   THE   OPPOSITION     329 

of  religion  arranges  itself  in  connection  with  these 
problems  is  lamentable,  and  is  unworthy  of  the 
seriousness  of  the  whole  question.  The  matter  is 
handled  as  a  law  trial  in  a  thoroughly  attorney- 
like fashion.  The  cases  which  seem  to  present  an 
affirmative  answer  are  recognised  gladly  as  "the 
ringer  of  God,"  especially  where  He  seems  to 
strengthen  one's  own  party  ;  but  what  shows  life  as 
suffering  and  unreason,  as  stubborn  opposition  and 
fruitless  toil,  is  ignored  or  placed  out  of  the  way  in  a 
manner  we  should  be  ashamed  of  in  connection  with 
human  things.  Soon  one  flees  to  mere  possibilities, 
and  holds  to  the  comfortable  thought  that  things 
will  soon  outweigh  in  an  opposite  direction,  and  that 
what  began  in  pain  and  sorrow  will  end  in  pleasure 
and  bliss.  Soon  the  thought  grants  the  consolation 
that,  in  spite  of  all  the  misery,  it  might  have  been 
worse ;  that  a  tormented  suffering  leads,  after  the 
exhaustion  of  all  the  energies,  finally  into  death,  and 
that  a  devastating  calamity  has  not  readied  the  depth 
it  might  have  readied — all  this  is  praised  as  a  grace  of 
God.  These  assumed  claims  easily  satisfy,  but  docs 
the  world  constitute  a  kingdom  of  reason  because  it 
is  not  the  worst  of  all  possible  worlds  \ 

If,  however,  the  unreason  is  far  too  evident  to 
accept  the  above  conclusion,  there  remains  to  the 
official  defenders  of  the  Godhead  one  other  exit: 
suffering  is  not  only  apologised  lor  but  welcomed  as  an 
indispensable  means  for  inner  purification  and  moral 
cultivation.  Now,  one  must  he  very  undiscerning 
not  to  be  aware  thai  an  order  of  things  whose  liighesl 

end  is  reachable  only  through  severe  suffering  can 
never  be  a  kingdom   of*   reason.      How  does  it  stand 


330  THE    OPPOSITION   TO    RELIGION 

with  the  real  fact  of  the  assertion  ?  Can  we  say  with 
certainty  that  suffering  reforms  man — reforms  him 
in  a  decisive  manner?  Or  does  it  not  perhaps  give 
another  direction  to  his  errors  ?  As  the  experience 
of  life  lifts  itself  up  to  an  unbiased  reflection,  suffering 
is  a  shield  against  evil  and  pride  ;  man  is  able  through 
great  tribulation  to  rouse  himself  out  of  the  numbness 
of  daily  routine,  and  is  able,  too,  to  pitch  his  courage 
to  a  gentle  key,  as  well  as  to  render  sincere  services 
to  his  fellow-men.  But,  on  the  other  side,  suffering 
often  works  in  the  direction  of  deadening  and  dis- 
couraging the  powers,  especially  when  it  does  not 
come  to  us  in  the  form  of  a  volcanic  catastrophe,  but 
accompanies  the  whole  course  of  life  as  a  continuous 
grief  and  as  a  cramped  pressure.  The  mean  and 
common  found  in  the  chain  of  relations,  from  which 
the  man  is  not  able  to  withdraw,  although  he  longs 
to  do  so  with  the  whole  of  his  soul,  confine  all  aspira- 
tion and  lower  the  level  of  life ;  and  close  to  such 
a  level  lies  a  turn  to  a  petty  and  narrow-minded 
disposition,  to  bitterness  of  heart  and  jealousy ;  in- 
deed, through  the  most  external  conditions,  suffering 
and  sorrow  can  suffocate  all  spiritual  effort.  Thus 
testifies  the  immediate  impression  of  experience  for 
the  Greeks,  to  whom  happiness  and  success  were  held 
as  aids  of  advancement  for  the  moral  education  of 
man.  And  the  fact  that  Christianity  took  up  suffer- 
ing into  the  inmost  soul  of  man,  and  made  it  a  point 
of  departure  to  an  entirely  new  direction  of  life — a 
fact  which  will  occupy  our  attention  later — can  only 
indicate  a  mistaken  shallowness  and  a  dangerous 
inversion,  as  though  suffering,  without  further  ado, 
through    a   kind    of  necessary   effect,    engendered  a 


THE    EXPLANATION    OF   THE   OPPOSITION     331 

spiritual  advance  and  a  moral  purification.  Then, 
indeed,  the  fact  would  be  most  simple,  so  simple  that 
religion  itself  would  become  superfluous.  Certainly 
to  all  religious  conviction  the  thought  is  indispensable 
that  somehow  at  least  a  reason  shall  issue  out  of 
unreason  is  to  be  hoped  for.  As  it  is  presented 
in  the  book  of  Job  :  "And  now  men  see  not  the 
light  which  is  bright  in  the  skies,  but  the  wind 
passeth  and  cleanseth  them  " ;  but  it  makes  a  great 
difference  whether,  first  of  all,  doubt  is  fully  tasted, 
and  whether  an  inner  turn  of  life,  through  the 
deepest  conviction,  is  prepared,  or  whether,  through 
those  supposed  reasonable  counsels  of  the  Godhead, 
all  shall  soon  be  turned  into  the  pure  and  the  clear, 
and,  along  with  this,  the  head  of  all  sting  shall  be 
plucked  out.  As  this  beautiful  colouring  tends  to- 
wards the  blunting  of  the  problem,  it  enters  into  a 
constant  conflict  with  the  plain  meaning  of  truth. 
For  the  meaning  of  truth  can  only  acknowledge  the 
impression  that  certainly  much  in  our  potencies  seems 
to  point  beyond  ourselves,  but  which,  however,  allows 
itself  to  be  understood  on  the  whole  as  a  strong 
enchainment  and  chaotic  disarrangement  of  occur- 
rences, ;is  an  indifferent  treading  upon  weal  and  woe, 
as  no  order  of  reason  lor  the  hopes  and  fears  of  man, 
and  as  no  kingdom  of  love.  And  with  what  other 
eyes  are  we  able  to  see  things  but  with  our  own  '. 

Much  certainly  remains  mysterious,  and  especially 
mysterious  is  the  lad  that  the  life  of  man  is  notable 
to    follow    a   directed    course.      It    seems   occasionally 

as  if  his  lite  ;ind  actions  were  driven  by  an  unexplain- 
able  power  into  ;i  course  unwilled  by  the  individual 
himself;  in  many  instances  a  strong  wave  seems  to 


3S2  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

raise  the  potencies  of  man  and  to  carry  him  far  past 
his  own  capacities;  in  other  instances  such  a  power, 
with  equal  energy,  seems  to  work  against  him,  and 
to  allow  his  choicest  undertakings  to  be  cruelly 
wrecked.  Thus,  there  has  originated  from  of  old 
the  belief  in  destiny  which,  with  brazen  will, 
prescribes  his  course  for  man,  doles  out  his  luck,  and 
to  resist  which  is  to  will  wantonly.  Spiritual  control 
is  withheld  all  the  more  from  such  a  belief  because 
human  self-love  plays  strongly  in  the  idea :  if  the 
belief  once  flatters  the  vanity  that  destiny,  through 
a  supernatural  power,  raises  the  individual  beyond 
others,  pettiness  and  weakness  find  their  most 
comfortable  trust  in  their  attempts  to  impute  their 
own  defects  to  an  irresistible  destiny.  It  constantly 
remains  a  noteworthy  experience  that  especially 
renowned  men  of  action,  whose  actions  operated  so 
efficaciously  in  a  dark  world  and  who  brought  forth 
incalculable  results,  often  lived  in  the  conviction  that 
they  were  tools  in  the  hand  of  an  all-powerful  destiny. 
This  belief,  invulnerable  against  all  dangers  and 
certain  to  lead  to  the  appointed  goal,  was  indispens- 
able to  them  in  order  to  possess  a  joyous  courage  for 
creativeness  and  for  the  entire  certainty  of  their 
enterprises.  But  all  the  power  of  such  a  subjective 
conviction  furnishes  no  objective  proof.  Could  it 
not  be  that  the  self- feeling  alone  was  expressed  in 
such  a  belief?  Were,  however,  the  reality  of  a 
higher  power  acknowledged  here,  the  mystery  of  the 
whole  world  would  increase  rather  than  lessen.  For 
why  does  that  solicitude  contract  itself  upon  indi- 
vidual cases,  and  how  does  it  agree  with  an  infinite 
good    when  it   handles    man   as   a   mere    tool,    and 


THE   EXPLANATION   OF  THE   OPPOSITION      333 

throws  him  indifferently  out  of  the  way  just  as  he 
is  about  to  reach  his  longed-for  goal  ?  Also,  in  the 
lives  of  great  men,  their  energy  seems  to  weaken 
after  the  culmination  of  their  work.  And  does  there 
not  remain  here  an  unexplainable  incongruity  between 
the  seeming  power  of  reason  on  its  summits  and  its 
weakness  on  the  whole  ?  Heroes  appear,  work,  and 
create ;  they  overcome,  as  in  a  play,  all  opposition ; 
they  link  their  results  to  their  further  pursuits  ;  thus 
their  achievement  enters  into  the  whole  and  seems  to 
control  the  destiny  of  humanity.  But  has  much  of 
reason,  on  the  whole,  issued  out  of  all  toil  and  work, 
and  does  history  exhibit  itself  as  a  victorious  ascent 
and  a  secure  advance  of  definite  spirituality  ?  And 
if  this  is  not  the  case,  what  avails  all  help  of  the 
Divine  in  individual  situations  ?  Once  more,  a  half- 
reason  seems  to  lie  in  front  of  us,  and  the  riddlesome 
appears  as  an  entire  unreason.  Thus,  it  happens  with 
us  in  our  search  for  a  guiding  thread  as  with  those 
who  search  for  a  track  in  a  deep  thicket.  We  seem 
to  have  found  sucli  a  track  ;  it  seems  to  show  a  way 
through  the  labyrinth  ;  it  becomes  clearer  and  seems 
to  lead  securely  to  a  goal.  But  soon  the  track  grows 
narrower,  fainter,  and  vanishes,  to  reappear ;  again  the 
imprints  become  fainter  and  fainter,  until  finally  the 
whole  disappears,  and  all  toil  lias  yielded  only  a 
delusive  hope. 

Perhaps,  however,  the  blame  of  the  previous  dis- 
contenl  lies  on  the  observer;  perhaps  we  have  sought 
in  an  inverted  direction.  If  a  benevolenl  providence 
which  links  .-ill  for  the  besl  is  not  recognisable,  yet 
there  appears  perhaps  with  clearer  eyes  a  moral  order. 
an  equilibrium  of  all  action  and  condition,  a  kingdom 


St34  THE   OPPOSITION   TO    RELIGION 

of  strong  righteousness.  The  longing  after  a  requited 
righteousness  is  in  no  way  an  outflow  from  a  petty 
disposition  which  desires  a  reward  for  the  good  and 
a  punishment  for  the  evil,  or  of  an  envied  calculation 
which  grows  anxious  lest  too  little  should  come  to  us 
and  too  much  should  go  to  another.  But  the  thought 
allows  itself  to  be  lifted  up  beyond  the  small  human 
mode,  and  places  before  itself  for  its  advancement 
the  fact  that  the  spiritual  governs  and  rules  the  world 
as  a  moral  order.  A  Plato  and  a  Kant  longed  for 
this. 

Thinkers  thus  shaped  into  the  Whole  and  the 
Spiritual  only  what  inspires  peoples  and  epochs,  and 
the  former  were  rather  called  to  transform  the  entire 
concept  of  reality  beyond  all  experience  than  to  be- 
queath anything  for  the  intensifying  of  the  demand. 
In  the  first  place,  one  hoped  to  find  the  entire  adjust- 
ment ready  in  the  life-course  of  each  individual ; 
as  experience  contradicted  this,  the  vicissitudes  of 
life  were  drawn  into  a  concept,  and  consequently 
righteousness  was  hoped  for  in  the  future  results  of 
the  race  as  a  whole.  But  such  vicissitudes  of  life 
engendered  new  problems  without  having  solved  the 
old  ones ;  and  now  the  thought  soars  beyond  the 
realm  of  fear  and  hope,  and  passes  beyond  the  limits 
of  this  life  to  seek  the  atoning  righteousness  in  a 
future  existence.  Most  peoples  satisfy  themselves 
with  such  a  solitary  consummation  of  things,  and 
find  in  the  thought  of  a  judgment  day  a  satisfying 
conclusion.  Others,  however,  who  did  not  merely 
think  forward  but  also  backward,  and  who,  with 
an  unbounded  imagination,  flew  beyond  the  world, 
went  much  further  and  made  of  the  present  life  an 


THE    EXPLANATION   OF   THE   OPPOSITION      S35 

individual  link  of  an  immeasurable  ehain — as,  for 
example,  the  Indian  doctrine  has  done  in  its  teaching 
of  the  transmigration  of  souls.  The  teaching  of  an 
unescapable  destiny  of  the  actions  constitutes  nowhere 
more  the  centre  of  religious  conviction  than  with 
the  Indians ;  what  is  truly  man's  own  seems  here  to 
him  to  be  nothing  more  than  his  deeds  ;  through  life 
and  death,  through  rebirth  and  transformation,  the 
consequences  of  his  deeds  return  to  man  from  the 
good  and  the  evil ;  nowhere  is  there  an  evasion  or  an 
aversion,  nowhere  a  forgetfulness  or  a  loss.  The 
imagination  has  never  worked  more  powerfully  than 
in  the  keen  tracings  of  such  views  of  the  universe ; 
and  the  sway  of  such  a  teaching  has  not  failed  to 
exercise  a  strong  effect  upon  the  soul  of  man.  But 
such  delineations  have  convincing  power  only  for 
believers,  to  whom  the  doctrines  make  possible  what 
is  necessary  for  their  souls.  But  he  who  does  not 
feel  himself  in  the  position  of  a  believer,  but  of  a 
seeker,  can  have  no  choice  but  to  look  within  his  own 
experience  for  the  essential  facts. 

Such  essential  facts  do  not  fail  us.  A  certain 
moral  order,  as  it  is  termed,  appears  already  in  the 
natural  concatenation  of  things  as  well  as  in  the 
external  results  of  action  and  in  the  judgment  of  the 
mind  on  such  action.  In  reality,  certain  kinds  of 
action  exhibit  characteristic  connections  which  pro- 
duce agreeable  results,  but  there  are  other  kinds 
which  produce  disagreeable  ones;  dissipation  is  less 
Conducive    to   well-being    than   a   well-regulated    life; 

and  ;iu  action  corresponding  to  the  Legal  and  social 
ordinances  is  more  favourable  to  decent  living  than 
a  contrary  kind  of  action.     Bui  how  Little,  after  all, 


886  THE   OPPOSITION    TO    RELIGION 

is  gained  from  such  trivial  truths !  They  are  valid 
only  for  isolated  fragments  of  life,  and  this  kind  of 
adjustment  touches  merely  the  visible  action,  whilst 
the  character  remains  untouched.  Indeed,  the  more 
the  life  intensifies  itself,  and  the  more  the  moral  tasks 
extend  over  the  whole  circumference  of  life,  the  more 
inadequate  will  all  such  adjustments  become  by 
means  of  natural  results. 

But  perhaps  there  grows  with  such  a  development 
of  life  as  the  action  engenders  in  the  inwardness  of 
the  soul  a  power  of  self-judgment,  of  conscience. 
Whenever  life  took  a  turn  from  external  effects  to  an 
inwardness  of  soul,  it  believed  itself  able  to  find  here 
an  uncorrupted  judge  of  good  and  evil ;  the  approval 
of  this  judge  seemed  to  produce  joy  and  power  against 
which  all  the  suffering  of  life  vanishes ;  its  condem- 
nation, on  the  contrary,  produces  a  torment  which 
reduces  the  value  of  the  most  brilliant  external 
achievements. 

Without  a  doubt  we  obtain  here  a  primal  spiritual 
phenomenon  which  only  a  shallow  external  course 
of  thought  can  lay  on  one  side.  But  the  question 
arises,  as  to  how  far  this  primal  phenomenon  reaches, 
and  whether  it  helps  to  the  production  of  a  righteous 
order  of  things  for  the  whole  of  our  existence.  But 
the  most  manifold  reflections  arise  against  such 
a  view.  First  of  all,  the  fact  loses  its  supposed 
inviolable  sublimity  because  the  nearer  kind  of  self- 
judgment  is  seen  to  be  under  the  influence  of  a  strong 
social  environment :  many  actions  were  valued  by 
different  peoples  and  epochs  in  quite  contrary  ways  ; 
a  conscience  which,  however,  as  a  kind  of  soft  wax, 
shapes  and  alters  itself  with    the  customs,  opinions, 


THE   EXPLANATION   OF   THE    OPPOSITION     SS7 

and  tendencies  of  men,  cannot  very  well  be  a  true 
standard  for  good  and  evil  or  an  entire  righteousness 
for  human  existence. 

Further,  conscience  is  dependent  in  a  high  degree 
on  the  individual  nature  of  the  soul.  The  reflex 
which  the  action  throws  on  the  consciousness  is  of 
varied  strength  and  accuracy :  with  one  man  the 
reflex  may  be  highly  dull,  and  may  work  as  an 
impulsive  decision ;  in  another,  on  the  contrary,  the 
reflex  fastens  the  man  with  great  energy  and  will  not 
let  him  free.  Thus,  the  first  man  does  not  trouble 
over  the  most  grievous  wrongs,  whilst  the  second 
excites  and  grieves  himself  over  mistakes  hardly 
perceptible.  Physical  differences  of  a  coarser  or  of  a 
finer  sensibility  play  strongly  in  connection  with  all 
this,  but  it  is  the  height  of  the  moral  development, 
however,  which  decides  concerning  the  energy  of  such 
a  self-judgment.  Thus  most  comes  to  him  who 
needs  it  least.  In  the  words  of  Pascal,  "  the  righteous 
arc  accustomed  to  consider  themselves  sinners  and 
the  sinners  righteous." 

Finally,  who  can  deny  that  conscience  forms  the 
foundation  for  the  influence  of  great  perverters  of 
moral  values  and  of  the  aims  of  life.  The  words  of 
(roethe,  "the  end  invests  things  witli  a  renown," 
holds  valid  also  in  the  particular  domain  of  character. 
For  tin-  evil  which  we  choose  arouses  us  but  little 
when  its  injury  is  not  perceptible,  or  when  it  is 
trimmed  into  a  supposed  good  through  the  enchain- 
ment of  eircu instances  :  and  thus  the  most  upright 
effort  towards  ourselves,  and  more  still  towards  others, 

seems  to  remain  trifling  and  worthless  if  ;ill  success  is 

denied  it.      Where,  however,   success  in   good   or  evil 

T2 


388  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

Mas  of  importance,  the  disposition  seems  to  grow 
greater  and  more  energetic  on  the  one  side  or  the 
other.  A  judge  so  dependent  and  corruptible  can 
never  brine  forth  righteousness  for  the  whole  of  life. 
All  in  all,  the  matter  here  stands  in  a  similar  state  to 
what  it  stood  in  connection  with  previous  points  we 
have  considered.  It  may  well  be,  that  a  phenomenon 
appears  within  the  human  province  whose  deepest 
root  reaches  back  into  the  super-human.  But  in  all 
the  nearer  development,  the  facts  come  under  the 
influence  of  human  means  and  imperfection  ;  we  thus 
seem  to  sink  back  into  the  same  uncertainty  out  of 
which  we  strove  to  escape. 

If,  however,  human  existence  through  its  own 
means  is  not  able  to  satisfy  the  longing  after  righteous- 
ness, the  moral  order  cannot  be  other  than  of  an  over- 
natural  kind :  an  over- world  AVill  must  re-establish 
the  equilibrium  of  action  and  condition  which  our 
life  fails  to  do.  The  fact  of  such  an  adjustment 
must  become  clearly  discernible  towards  our  human 
view  of  things,  and,  indeed,  it  must  become  clearly 
evident  even  over  against  such  an  adjustment  in 
order  to  be  able  to  protect  our  conviction  and  to 
govern  our  life.  Does  it  in  reality  do  this  ?  Who 
could  confidently  answer  in  the  affirmative  ?  For 
the  nearest-at-hand  impression  confirms  in  no  way 
within  our  experience  the  doctrine  of  a  righteous 
course  of  the  achievements  of  life ;  but  it  shows  far 
more  a  great  disproportion  of  things.  Soon  the 
action  has  the  most  serious  consequences,  and  all 
these  consequences  return  to  the  man  himself; 
causality  holds  him  unmercifully  in  its  grip,  and  a 
long-buried  past  may  rise  out  of  its  grave  and  terrify 


THE    EXPLANATION   OF  THE   OPPOSITION     339 

him  as  a  ghost.  But,  inversely,  painful  wrong  courses 
remain  for  a  long  time  without  any  consequences ; 
these  courses  degenerate  the  man  not  only  externally 
but  also  internally  ;  they  fall  upon  him  as  something 
alien,  and  disperse  and  destroy  all  just  as  a  storm 
ravages.  Thus  particular  kinds  of  foundations  come 
to  such  a  lawless  medley  when  they  oppose  the  right- 
eous allotments  of  destiny.  The  individual  is  not 
an  island,  but  stands  in  manifold  and  often  entangled 
relations ;  he  is  conditioned  by  the  nature  of  the 
environment,  by  his  commissions  and  omissions  in 
wide  and  narrow  circles,  by  family,  nation,  times,  etc. 
Such  a  solid  complication  rules  here  that  the  action 
has  its  consequences  often  less  on  the  doer  than  on 
others ;  one  individual  has  often  to  atone  for  the 
wrongs  of  others,  and  one  generation  for  the  foolish- 
ness of  another  ;  the  offence  of  one  drags  others  into 
unhappiness  and  misery;  "the  fathers  have  eaten 
sour  grapes,  and  the  children's  teeth  are  set  on  edge." 
Herewith  the  threads  run  into  the  individual 
scenes  of  life,  entangled  in  one  another  without 
binding  themselves  into  a  connected  web  and  with- 
out exhibiting  a  common  character.  lie  who  seeks 
to  draw  a  conclusion  concerning  the  destinies  of  life 
can  hardly  avoid  the  conclusion  of  a  blind  confusion, 
and  this  confusion  becomes  a  strong  injustice  when 
so  many  differences  of  an  inward  kind  and  character 
originate,  as  they  in  reality  do  originate.  Such  an 
impression  might  call  forth  passionate  complaints 
and  accusations  from  one  direction;  from  another 
direction  they  may  acquire  a  form  of  a  disquieting 

doubt;    but    in    both    cases    the    indifference    of    the 

world  transposes  itself  againsl  the  moral  relationships 


340  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

and  being  of  man,  and  in  direct  antagonism  to  the 
strongest  activity  of  most  earnest  minds.  That  evil 
often  not  only  hinders  and  rejects,  but  also  advances 
and  rewards,  and  that  the  good  seems  continuously 
to  abandon  the  hoped-for  energy  for  the  suppres- 
sion and  overthrow  of  wrong — all  this  has  become 
in  the  particular  province  of  religion  a  matter  of 
incessant  searching  of  heart  and  of  sorrow.  "Behold, 
I  cry  out  of  wrong,  but  1  am  not  heard  :  I  cry  for  help, 
but  there  is  no  judgment "  (Job).  "  The  righteous 
perisheth,  and  no  man  layeth  it  to  heart ;  and  godly 
men  are  taken  away,  none  considering  that  the 
righteous  is  taken  away  through  wickedness  "  (Isaiah). 
The  general  custodians  of  belief  and  the  official 
representatives  of  religion  have,  of  course,  here  as 
well  as  elsewhere  a  comfortable  answer  at  hand. 
Man,  they  say,  dare  not  reckon  with  God,  whose 
decrees  far  overreach  all  human  knowledge ;  also, 
according  to  the  Divine  Standard,  no  one  is  free 
from  blame,  and,  therefore,  suffering  met  even  him 
not  unjustly  who  was  righteous  among  men.  How 
clear  all  this  mystery  seems  to  self-righteous  men, 
who  yet  make  a  confession  of  their  impotence ! 
What  do  they  know  of  the  decrees  of  God  ?  And 
how  could  they  expect  from  man  a  suspension  of 
his  judgment  and  a  denial  of  the  imperative  and 
urgent  impressions  which  he  forms?  Certainly,  all 
the  moral  differences  of  men  vanish  in  the  light  of 
the  conception  of  absolute  perfection,  but  man  is 
not  able  to  consider  his  actions  in  relationship  to 
the  Divine  as  solely  his  own,  but  also  through  the  con- 
nections of  these  actions  with  his  fellow-men ;  he  is 
not  able  to  adjust  the  vicissitudes  and  values  of  life  ; 


THE   EXPLANATION   OF  THE   OPPOSITION      341 

and  when  therefore  he  can  find  no  righteousness  any- 
where, religion  with  its  basing  of  the  good  in  the  Divine 
must  heighten  the  pain  and  the  unrest.  And  is  not 
the  history  of  religion  itself  full  of  the  most  painful  per- 
secution and  oppression  of  the  Noble  and  the  Divine  ? 
Religion  is  never  able  to  think  lightly  of  such  problems. 
Also,  injustice  limits  itself  in  no  way  to  the  rela- 
tionship of  inner  and  outer,  of  blame  and  condi- 
tions, but  it  strikes  its  roots  into  the  inward  nature 
itself,  it  turns  into  blame  what  is  in  no  way  so  in  its 
whole  extent,  and  what  is  often  hardly  a  blame  at 
all.  The  causation  of  things  and  the  growing  relation- 
ship of  the  individual  with  the  environment  through 
which  much  unmerited  wrong  has  fallen  on  the  in- 
dividual, as  we  have  seen,  enters  into  his  particular 
actions ;  what  he  designates  as  his  own  act  is  dis- 
covered inwardly  to  be  only  an  inevitable  final  link 
of  a  long  chain  which  reaches  far  back ;  indeed, 
reaches  into  immensity.  All  this  may  not  lie  entirely 
outside  the  fault  of  the  individual  himself,  but  such 
an  external  fault  is  nothing  compared  with  what 
appears  in  the  individual  consciousness  as  the  indi- 
vidual's  own  fault.  The  seeming  inevitableness  of 
that  which,  however,  works  as  our  own  act — the 
growth  of  faults  through  the  impervious  web  of 
destiny  lias  from  of  old  occupied  the  attention  of 
the  deepei  minds.  The  problem  permeates  ancient 
tragedy,  and  has  ever  since  accompanied  artistic 
creativeness  to  its  heights;  and  that  thinkers  have 
not  shut  out  the   problem    is  shown   by  the  words  of 

Schilling:   "The  highest  conceivable   misfortune  is 
to  become  blameable  through  destiny  withoul  being 

conscious  of  any   blame  of  our  own." 


342  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

It  is  of  great  importance  to  bear  in  mind  that 
things  are  not  sharply  marked  off  from  one  another 
in  the  web  of  Life,  and  that  good  and  evil  do  not 
stand  here  pure  and  clear  over  against  one  another, 
as  has  been  pointed  out  in  books  on  morality  and  in 
edifying  discourses.  But  in  the  confused  state  of  the 
human  situation,  one  element  flows  almost  imper- 
ceptibly into  another  ;  our  actions  seem  often  entirely 
indifferent  to  morality,  and  no  danger  whatever  is 
perceived  as  being  present  in  the  sphere  of  history. 
And  yet  the  road  can  lead,  if  we  follow  it  farther,  to 
the  brink  of  an  abyss ;  a  catastrophe  breaks  forth 
suddenly ;  the  past  illumines  itself  clearly  and 
piercingly,  and  shows  a  blame  in  what  previously 
seemed  to  require  no  consideration.  The  blame  here 
often  seems  to  lie  more  in  the  omissions  than  in  the 
commissions  of  life.  The  unholy  thing  is  avoided 
through  the  calling  up  of  opportune  energy  and 
through  the  skilful  installation  of  our  activity.  We 
have  not  called  up  the  consciousness  of  the  wrong, 
but  it  comes  upon  us.  But  did  we  know  what  stood 
in  question,  and  could  we  measure  the  consequences 
of  a  hesitation  to  decide  ?  Thus  it  was  upon  our 
ignorance  and  inability  that  the  fact  returns.  But 
did  not  our  action  in  some  kind  of  way  participate 
in  such  an  ignorance,  and  does  not  the  fact,  along 
with  this,  again  become  our  own  blame  ?  Therefore, 
blame  rests  not  so  much  upon  the  individual  act  as 
upon  the  whole  of  our  being.  But  have  we  ourselves 
brought  forth  this  being  of  ours  ?  Has  it  not  de- 
volved upon  us  through  the  destiny  of  nature,  of  the 
situation  of  life,  of  education,  of  our  times,  of  our 
environment,  etc.  ?     Is  not  the  fact  of  our  aspiration 


THE   EXPLANATION   OF  THE    OPPOSITION     343 

after  the  heights  of  spiritual  development,  in  order 
that  we  may  feel  ourselves  free,  in  order  that  we  may- 
strive  after  self-activity — is  not  all  this  more  than  the 
result  of  that  dowry  of  a  particular  existence  and 
destiny  ?  But  if  we  are  a  mere  piece  of  the  world 
and  its  causality  even  when  we  feel  ourselves  free, 
whence  comes  the  feeling  of  obligation  and  the 
consciousness  of  wrong  which  burden  us  often  so 
unbearably  ?  Is  there  not  here  imbedded  the  greatest 
injustice,  that  man  should  have  to  carry  in  his  breast 
the  pains  and  sorrows  of  freedom  without  being 
able  to  possess  freedom?  If  things  are  otherwise, 
freedom  is,  in  spite  of  all  hindrance,  able  to  maintain 
itself,  and  the  whole  world  is  rather  to  be  dashed  in 
pieces  than  to  abandon  freedom  !  But  who  confers 
on  us  the  indispensable  energy— the  energy  for  the 
construction  of  a  new  kind  of  world  ?  In  the  mean- 
time, we  remain  in  the  custody  of  the  old  world,  and 
experience  here  perpetually  shows  the  most  painful 
disagreement  between  the  "ought"  and  the  "is." 
We  must  act :  the  necessity  of  physical  and  social 
self-preservation  compels  us  with  unrelenting  con- 
straint to  this.  But  we  act  in  the  region  of  darkness 
with  a  chance  of  success  even  there ;  without  being 
able  to  fathom  the  connections  and  to  measure  the 
results,  our  actions  alter  the  course  of  things  and 
create  a  new  situation.  And  yet  in  this  wc  have  fallen 
under  the  power  of  destiny.  For  the  linkage  of  things 
may  bring  forth  effects  which  we  had  not  dreamed 
of,  which  contradict  directly  our  own  plans,  and  for 
which  wc  are  not  responsible.  Through  such  an  in- 
version of  plan  and  result  we  may  injure  where  we 
ought  to  help,  and  destroy  where  we  ouglit   I"    build. 


844  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

When  the  winds  and  waves  of  destiny  drive  us  to 
entirely  other  bearings  than  were  present  in  our  minds, 
what  in  all  of  this  is  man's  own  work,  what  of  his 
own  being  is  in  it  ?  Does  he  steer  his  own  course, 
or  is  he  a  mere  tool  in  the  hands  of  dark  powers? 
Tims  could  the  old  poet  call  out : 

"  What  then  is  mar,  and  what  not,  too,  is  he  ? 
The  dream  of  a  spirit  that  ceases  to  be"  (Pindar), 

and  with  a  turn  towards  the  moral  problem,  a  more 
recent  great  poet  thus  conceives  of  doubt : 

"  Thou  leadest  man  to  life's  domain, 
Thou  countest  to  him  many  a  blame, 
And  then  thou  leavest  him  in  pain"  (Goethe). 

All  doubt  and  sorrow,  however,  which  call  forth 
such  a  view  of  the  world  and  such  a  situation  of  man, 
must  fall  with  their  whole  energy  on  the  soul  of  the 
individual  after  the  inauguration  of  an  Absolute  Life 
within  man's  domain  has  immeasurably  raised  him. 
For  now  he  is  no  longer  able  to  cast  off  from  himself 
the  problems  of  the  world ;  now  he  has  immediate 
participation  in  Infinity;  now  he  must  discover  as 
his  very  own  the  destiny  which  the  Spiritual  Life 
experiences  within  the  human  province.  Indeed,  he 
sees  all  his  work  and  being  placed  under  a  pointed 
contradiction  which  limits  his  actions,  which  renders 
his  feelings  uncertain,  and  which  makes  his  whole 
existence  problematic. 

So  far  as  the  Spiritual  Life  develops  itself,  the  indi- 
vidual gains  the  unique  place  where  an  originality 
is  able  to  break  forth  and  to  give  an  incomparable 
worth  and  a  secure  superiority  against  all  the  re- 
mainder of  his  existence.     Here  alone — if  anywhere 


THE   EXPLANATION   OF  THE   OPPOSITION      345 

in  human  things — can  there  be  a  self-aim  and  self- 
worth.  That  which  pertains  to  the  development  of 
man's  soul — to  the  working  out  of  his  spiritual  nature 
— must  act  on  the  individual  and  must  precede  all 
remaining  tasks ;  it  must  all  the  more  set  the 
individual's  main  energy  in  the  direction  of  this  goal 
because  the  path  to  such  a  goal  is  full  of  toil  and 
obstacles ;  and  the  individual  dare  not  consider 
anything  which  belongs  to  such  a  tendency  as  small 
and  insignificant.  For  in  all  this  the  individual 
struggles  for  something  which  brings  forth  with  itself 
a  world — an  essential  world,  behind  which  all  the 
"  goods "  of  natural  things  take  a  secondary  place ; 
here  the  matter  deals  concerning  the  salvation  of  his 
own  soul,  the  loss  of  which  is  incapable  of  being 
counterbalanced  by  the  gain  of  the  whole  world. 
Thus,  his  inmost  consciousness  enables  man  to  dis- 
cover such  a  fact  as  a  holy  duty,  and  the  human 
environment  does  not  fail  to  support  him  in  this. 
Religion  and  morality  strengthen  him  powerfully 
in  this  task,  and  all  deeper  cultivation  concerns  itself 
with  the  effort  of  reaching  such  a  goal. 

That  such  an  upward  movement  proceeding  from 
such  an  inward  obligation  clashes  with  the  most 
pointed  contradictions  of  the  world-mechanism,  has 
already  been  shown  in  our  investigation;  such  a 
mechanism  treats  all  actions,  and,  indeed,  all  the 
being  of  the  individual  with  indifference,  so  that  from 
the  mechanical  standpoint  they  appear  as  futile  and 
unreal.  According  to  the  meaning  of  the  external 
world,  all  the  inwardness  of  man  appears  as  an 
insignificant  point  of  an  immensity  whose  original 
elements    become  ever    more    inaccessible    the    more 


846  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

science  binds  its  effects  into  laws,  and  which  shows 
ever    clearer   its    extreme    callousness    towards    our 
strivings.     Human  connections  give  the  individual  a 
higher  value,  but  here,  again,  the  more  the  complexities 
grow,  the  more  exclusively  do  the  achievements  of 
man  turn  towards  merely  external  aims  and,  therefore, 
these  achievements  become  more  and  more  one-sided  ; 
what  is  inwardly  going  on  in  man,  what  issues  out  of 
this  inwardness,  and  what  has  become  the  standpoint 
of  his  soul,  become  largely  subsidiary   facts.     Also, 
where  all  value  depends  on  the  achievements,  no  one 
is  indispensable  and  no  one  but  can  be  substituted 
by  someone  else,  for  all  this  mode  of  thought  there 
is  provision  elsewhere  for  anything  and  everything ; 
thus  the  stream  of  social  life  flows  quickly  over  the 
individual   with  all  his  sorrows,  hopes,  and  burning 
aspiration   after   a  self  of  value.     Consequently,  on 
such  a  level,  there  remains  but  the  relationship  of  indi- 
vidual to  individual ;  if  there  is  anything  here  which 
man  may  hope  for,  it  is  to  be  found  as  a  self-aim  and 
self-value  in  reciprocal  love  in  the  whole  of  his  being, 
in  his  drawing  nearer  to  the  spirituality  of  his  nature, 
and  in  his  directing  himself  towards  sympathy,  com- 
prehension, and  love.     But  through  such  a  relation- 
ship of  individual  and  individual,  we  meet  not  only 
in   the   province   of  the  accidental   but  also   within 
the    inner    situation    of    the    soul,    difficulties    and 
infirmities  which  cling  with  great  energy.     What  is 
usually  praised  as  love  rests  so  little  upon  the  whole, 
the  inward,  and  the  essential ;  it  is  so  entangled  with 
bare  natural  impulses,  and  so  dependent  on  external 
things,  and  especially  so  fugitive  and  transient,  that 
it  mirrors  the  deeper  aspiration   of  the   soul   as   an 


THE   EXPLANATION   OF   THE   OPPOSITION     847 

illusion  far  more  than  it  helps  that  aspiration  to  obtain 
its  fulfilment.  Thus  the  individual  sees  his  impulses 
appropriated — impulses  worthy  in  themselves  :  they 
become  acknowledged,  valued,  furthered,  but  are  of 
no  help  to  him  in  his  hard  struggle ;  he  cannot,  with 
all  his  aims,  prevent  himself  from  being  dealt  with 
by  the  whole  of  experience,  because  he  himself  must 
deal  with  all  things  from  an  inward  necessity. 

What  consequences,  however,  shall  man  draw  from 
the  fact  that  the  world-mechanism  is  so  indifferent 
towards  him,  and  also  seems  so  superfluous  ?  From 
of  old — with  special  energy  in  Stoicism — the  method 
lias  sought  to  loosen  itself  wholly  from  the  world, 
and  to  withdraw  solely  to  one's  own  inwardness,  and 
here  to  construct  an  independence  against  all  the 
environment.  In  reality,  the  power  to  accomplish 
this  lies  in  the  ability  of  man  to  place  himself  upon 
his  own  thoughts  alone,  and  to  reject  all  connections 
with  the  world  ;  he  can  then  create  a  characteristic 
happiness  and  a  stolid  feeling  of  superiority  out  of  the 
liberation  from  all  oppression  and  out  of  an  elevation 
above  the  tilings  of  the  world.  Hut  does  such  a  self- 
affirmation  of  the  individual  suffice,  and  is  it  able  to 
inspire  the  whole  of  life?  Is  there  not,  first  of  all, 
in  all  true  effort  towards  spirituality  a  reciprocal 
communication,  an  exchange  of  life,  indispensable? 
Does  not  the  separation  of  man  from  things  turn 
quickly  into  an  inner  impoverishment  ?  And  when 
man  casts  a  glance  at  himself,  does  he  not  meet 
difficult  entanglements  within  his  own  nature,  and 
does  he  not  need  for  their  solution  the  Other— the 
Whole  '.  The  fundamental  mistake  of  such  an 
abstraction  is  to  see  the  problem   only  in   the  relation 


;448  THE   OPPOSITION   TO    RELIGION 

of  man  to  the  environment;  and  if  the  soul  discovers 
itself  as  full  of  entanglements,  the  insufficiency  of 
such  a  view  is  clear. 

But  what  shall  man  do  when  the  world  treats  him 
indifferently,  and  when  he  finds  no  refuge  in  himself? 
Shall  he,  on  his  own  side,  acknowledge  the  negation 
which  the  world  exercises  on  him  ?     Shall  he  simply 
renounce  himself  to   that  which    coerces   all   effort, 
which  suspends  the  Life-process,  and  which  expects 
all  safety  through  death  and  annihilation  ?     He  could 
do  this  if  the  movement  of  life  were  his  own  concern 
— his  own  private  fact.     But  he  could  not  do  this  if 
within  him  a  Life-process  superior  to  all  mere  exact- 
ness— the  opening  out  of  a  higher  order  of  things — 
is  acknowledged.     Thus,  there  is  something  implanted 
in   him  which    he  dare  not  rob  himself  of;  he  now 
deals  with  a  problem  which  he  himself  has  not  set, 
but  which,  as  from  a  sublime  energy,  rises  within 
him  and  refuses  to  be  abandoned.     However  much 
of  all  this  concerns  itself  with  the  renunciation  of 
his  own  happiness,   man  is   not  able  to  disown   his 
spiritual  nature  and  its  tasks.      In  his  nature  and  its 
tasks   a   fact   seems    committed   to  him  which  is  of 
value  not  only  for  himself  but  for  the  whole ;   for 
the  vindication  of  a  higher  order  of  things  does  not 
seem  possible  without  his  activity.     Therefore,  beyond 
all   the    physical  oppression  of  life  something  meta- 
physical seems  to  govern,  and  which  forbids  a  simple 
abandonment.      If  the  fact  stands  thus,  why  does  not 
that  superior  power  help  man  ?    And  why  is  man  placed 
in  a  situation  where  neither  success  can  be  expected  nor 
abandonment  be  allowed  ?     Must  not  such  a  contra- 
diction destroy  all  courage  for  effort  and  creativeness  ? 


PART  III.— THE  OPPOSITION  TO  RELIGION 

(Continued) 

CHAPTER  X 

b.  The  Opposition  Considered 

1.   The  Inadequacy  of  Proposed  Remedies 

We  have  followed  the  main  directions  in  which  the 
development  of  an  independent  spirituality  met  with 
oppositions  ;  evidently  the  hindrances  do  not  flow 
separately  side  by  side,  but  they  mutually  strengthen 
one  another  and  raise  one  another  into  united  action, 
SO  that  they  become  an  invincible  power.  The  world 
outside  seems  indifferent  and  rigid  ;  human  society  is 
considered  inadequate,  and  resting  less  upon  truth 
than  upon  semblance  :  the  spiritual  movement  within 
our  own  province  is  weak  and  full  of  contradictions ; 
and  in  destiny  there  is  to  be  recognised  no  govern- 
ment either  of  love  or  of  righteousness  ;  all,  with  the 
whole  of  its  energy,  extends  into  the  life  of  the  in- 
dividual. Tims,  how  can  man  adhere  to  his  effort 
after  independent  spirituality  mid  to  a  belief  in  the 

presence  of  the  Divine  '. 

All  attempts  which  human  need  has  devised  for 
its  justification  have  been  shattered  on  the  rocks  of 
these  hindrances.  First  of  all,  all  systems  of  optimism 
have    been    shattered.     These    may    point    out     the 

849 


350  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

evident  unreason  of  our  situation  and  seek  another 
standard  of  consideration,  as  an  insertion  of  things 
into  wider  connections.  Why  could  not  the  contra- 
dictions of  the  world  disentangle  themselves  through 
such  a  standard  into  a  pure  harmony,  or  why  could 
not  what  seems  as  a  stubborn  hindrance  prove  itself 
a  means  to  the  awakening  and  elevation  of  life  ?  A 
beautiful  prospect,  but  only  a  prospect !  As  we  are 
not  able  to  place  ourselves  upon  that  higher  standard, 
such  a  solution  at  the  best  remains  no  more  than  a 
mere  possibility;  and  compared  with  the  very  real 
reality  of  unreason,  this  possibility  is  hardly  more 
than  a  shadow  compared  with  a  living  body.  The 
main  error  of  this  attempt  consists  in  that  the  fact 
is  conceived  as  a  problem  of  mere  observation.  If  we 
were  related  to  the  world  merely  as  observers,  and  if 
all  suffering  were  nothing  other  than  a  displeasure  of 
the  observer  from  what  occurs  externally,  a  variation 
of  the  standard  might  effect  in  all  cases  a  complete 
change  of  judgment.  But  we  stand  in  no  manner  as 
mere  observers  of  the  world,  but  through  actions  and 
sufferings  are  drawn  into  the  depth  of  the  world  ; 
what  we  herewith  experience  is  itself  a  piece  of 
actuality,  and  this  actuality  will  never  allow  itself 
to  be  placed  on  one  side,  or,  through  any  dexterity, 
allow  itself  to  vanish. 

Also,  the  delusion  of  hope  of  being  able  to  bring 
forth  more  pure  reason  from  the  movement  of  culture 
has  been  demonstrated  in  the  whole  course  of  our  in- 
vestigation. Indeed,  the  main  point  of  the  entangle- 
ment consisted  in  the  fact  that  difficulties  of  an 
essential  spirituality  in  connection  with  the  highest 
questions  made  all  progress  insecure  and  all  results 


THE   OPPOSITION   CONSIDERED  851 

double-edged ;  the  alleged  gain  transformed  itself 
lightly  into  a  loss,  and  what  has  long  seemed  certain 
fell  ever  anew  into  doubt  and  struggle.  He  who 
hopes  for  an  essential  betterment  of  the  position  of 
facts  from  the  historical  movement  has  to  weave  to- 
gether independent  and  mere- human,  central  and 
peripheric  spirituality  into  one. 

Thus  the  proposed  remedies  leave  the  fact  un- 
furthered  and  the  problem  unsolved  ;  in  the  last  resort 
we  see  ourselves  ever  thrown  back  upon  the  point 
from  which  we  set  out,  and  the  attempt  to  switch  off 
the  entanglement  makes  it  reappear  all  the  greater. 

2.    The  Impossibility  of  a  Negation 

If  the  facts  stand  thus,  the  oppositions  grow 
from  stage  to  stage  and  frustrate  all  attempts  for 
the  welfare  of  the  soul.  What  then  remains  but 
an  entire  negation  ?  If  the  intolerable  entanglements 
do  not  untie  themselves  in  some  kind  of  way,  the 
whole  movement  towards  an  independent  spirituality 
is  withdrawn,  and  the  conviction  of  the  presence  of 
a  Divine  within  the  human  province  is  relinquished. 
In  whatever  manner  the  conviction  originated,  it 
seems  to  prove  itself  an  error  in  the  impotence  of 
its  achievement.  If  the  facts  really  stand  thus, 
nothing  must  prevent  us  from  drawing  courageously 
and  pronouncing  honestly  the  legitimate  conclusions. 
Thus,  .ill  thai  belongs  to  the  turn  towards  spirituality 
or  which  results  from  it  would  be  rejected  as  a  mere 
illusion,  and  would  be  removed  wholly  from  our 
life.  Although  this  could  not  happen  at  one 
stroke,  the  duty  of  veracity  at  least  would  command 
an  energetic  striving  towards   such  an  end  if  after 


S52  THE   OPPOSITION  TO   RELIGION 

such  a  breach  there  would  be  any  place  for  veracity 
and  duty. 

The  consequences,  difficult  as  they  are,  should  not, 
therefore,  hold  us  back  from  such  a  task.     But  we 
are  not  quite  so  sure  whether  absolute  negation  really 
brings  the  situation    to  a  correct    expression.      We 
have  already  seen  that  a   painful  contradiction  per- 
meates the  whole  of  our  existence,  that  neither  the 
world  nor  our  own  capacity  corresponds  to  the  tasks 
laid  on  us  and  which  gain   our  conviction.      Could 
the  contradiction  long   for  the   violent  and    stirring 
energy  which  we  have  already  discussed,  if  such  tasks 
hang  on  us  only  externally,  and  if  such  an  energy 
deceived  us  as   a   merely  transient   play  of  fancy? 
If  there  grows  within  the  whole  of  life  an  earnest, 
penetrating  conflict,  therefore  a  two-sidedness  of  life 
has   taken    place;    there    originates    now    not    only 
something  that   hinders,  but  also  something  that   is 
being  hindered — something  whose  development  fails 
to  succeed,  something  that  is  everywhere  denied  its 
request,  but  that  never  allows  itself  to  be  explained 
as  pure  nothingness,  or  to  be  blotted  out  of  life  as 
mere   fancy.      Pascal   was    right    when    he    stated : 
"  Qui  se  trouve  malheureux  de  netre  pas  roi,  si  non 
un  roi  depossede' " ;    and    were   there    not   imbedded 
in  human  nature  an  elevated  movement  superior  to 
all    arbitrary   action,    the    state    of  our   world   could 
never  engender  so  much  agitation,  indignation,  and 
pain.     Through  what  other  means  do  the  strangeness 
and  indifference   of  soulless    nature   become  objects 
of  complaint,  but  through  the  fact  that  we  are  able 
to  reflect  on  a  Whole  and  relate  ourselves  to  higher 
:iims  '.     How  could  the  evanescence  of  our  existence, 


THE   OPPOSITION   CONSIDERED  353 

for  example,  create  a  pain  unless  something  Eternal 
worked  in  us  and  withstood  the  dissolution  of  things 
into  a  mere  flux  of  time  ?  Why  do  the  inadequacy 
and  the  perversion  of  the  social  configuration  of 
Spiritual  Life  grieve  us  unless  another  configuration 
of  life  aspires  over  against  the  social  form,  and  which 
now  relegates  all  actions  and  impulses  to  a  lower  level? 
Could  such  difficult  entanglements  be  discovered  in 
the  inwardness  of  the  Spiritual  Life  unless  in  some 
kind  of  way  a  superior  kind  of  energy  brought  about 
the  opposition,  and  unless  we  were,  in  some  kind  of 
way,  inwardly  raised  beyond  the  sphere  of  conflict  ? 
Why  do  the  flaws  in  love  and  righteousness  within 
our  circle  agitate  us  so  powerfully  unless  some 
precious  good  suffers  injury  ?  Finally,  how  could 
the  individual  experience  the  entanglements  of  the 
whole  as  his  own  particular  life  unless  he  had  some- 
how raised  up  a  new  order  of  things  to  the  level  of 
cosmic  significance  ? 

All  this  has  run  as  a  leading  thought  through  the 
whole  of  our  explanation  ;  the  hindrances  have  ap- 
peared so  great  because  new  and  greater  demands 
have  been  made  ;  so  that  here  we  only  gather  together 
what,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  manifested  itself  step  by  step 
in  the  actual  condition  of  things,  viz.  that  the  strength 
of  the  suffering  and  the  hardness  of  the  contradictions 
prove  themselves  to  be  the  best  testimony  lor  the  depth 
of  our  exist  ciicc,  and  for  the  efficacy  of  a  higher  energy. 
A  Nay  which  calls  forth  so  much  stir  and  movement 

is  impossible  without  a  Yea.  all  hough  such  a  Yea  may 

be  imbedded  far  in  the  background  of  life. 

The   inward    contradiction    of    absolute    pessimism 

lies  in  that  it  sees  but  one  side  of  the  facts,  in   that  it 

88 


354  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

ends  with  what  falls  within  the  realm  of  perception, 
and  in  that  it  does  not  concede  that  the  impressions, 
the   stirring,  and   the   suffering,   however  deep   and 
ardent  they  may  be,  could  occur  unless  somehow  a 
positive  life  and  striving  were  being  hindered.     If  all 
is  futile,  there  originates  no  kind  of  disparity  ;  pain  is 
an  illusion  which  easily  allows  itself  to  be  shaken  off. 
It  is  an  absurdity  to  bewail  the  privation  or  the  loss 
of  that  the  possession  of  which  granted  no  happiness. 
Such  a  contradiction  permeates  the  Indian  conviction 
and  feeling  of  life.     Here  pain  originates  primarily  out 
of  the  experience  and  perception  of  the   instability, 
transitoriness,  and  incessant  flux  of  things.     But  how 
can  the  transient  be  an  evil  if  we,  root  and  branch, 
belong  to  the  kingdom  of  flux,  and,  therefore,  lead 
but  the  life  of  a  day  ?     If  in  reality  the  evanescent 
can  be  felt  as  pain  only  by  a  nature  intended  for  the 
Eternal  and  thirsting  after  Eternity,  then  the  strength 
of  pain  bears  immediate  witness  to  that  longing  for 
Eternity.     This  is  the  truth-element  in  the  Hellenic 
thoughts  concerning  the  privative  nature  of  evil — in 
the  conception   of  evil   as  a  mere   hindrance  and   a 
robbing  of  the  good — so  that,  in  fact,  without  some 
kind  of  pre-existing  good,  suffering  would  have  no 
energy  and  pain  no  depth.     But  such  an  optimistic 
conception  made  a  mistake  in  conceiving  that  through 
the  presence  of  a  ready-made  kind  of  good   it   was 
able   to    substantiate   the    predominant    power   and 
authority  of  the  good.     But  a  mistake  quite  as  great 
is  to  be  found  in  pessimism,  in  that,  in  the  main,  it 
wipes  out  all  the  good  because  its   development   in 
human  existence  clashes  with  difficult  entanglements. 
Also,  the  experience  of  life  speaks  clearly  enough 


THE   OPPOSITION   CONSIDERED  355 

in  the  same  strain.  In  no  manner  is  the  sense  of 
hard  suffering  wont  to  drive  man  to  an  entire 
negation.  But  even  when  the  calamities  hurl  them- 
selves against  him,  when  he  is  threatened  not  only 
from  without  in  all  that  he  loves,  but  also  when  he  is 
convulsed  to  the  very  depth  of  his  existence,  such  a 
situation  is  able  to  awaken  a  certain  axiomatic  con- 
sciousness of  his  relationship  to  an  order  of  things 
on  the  other  side  of  all  the  conflict,  and  to  the 
certainty  of  the  indestructibility  of  his  inner  nature, 
as  well  as  to  a  strength  which  will  enable  him  to 
reach  his  goal.  Such  a  province  of  hindrance  appears 
then  as  a  stage  of  reality,  as  a  stage  which  cannot 
possibly  signify  the  whole  of  man's  existence. 
Nothing  protects  life  so  powerfully  from  abandoning 
the  whole  of  existence  and  from  a  docile  resignation 
to  the  thought  of  annihilation  than  deep  suffering, 
especially  suffering  and  pain  in  spiritual  things — in 
such  things  as  are  here  in  question.  It  is  not  epochs 
of  troubled  experiences  and  difficult  entanglements 
which  make  humanity  err  in  connection  with  its 
higher  tasks,  but  far  more  epochs  of  idle  pleasures  and 
seeming  plenty.  Further,  over  against  religion,  a 
strong  experience  of  the  unreason  of  our  existence 
lms  worked  not  so  much  in  the  weakening  as  in  the 
strengthening  of  belief,  and  such  an  experience, 
beyond  all  capacity  of  a  direct  demonstration  of  the 
truth,  heralds  the  necessity,  the  certainty,  and  the 
presence  of  a  new  world.  In  the  midst  of  the  most 
conclusive  doubt  a  doubt  that  cannot  from  its  very 
root  be  refuted  the  impossibility  of  an  entire 
negation  has  dawned  with  victorious  clearness. 
Through  such   a  train   of  thought,  all    the  difficult 


S56  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

hindrances  which  human  existence  reveals  cannot  lead 
towards  an  entire  renunciation  ;  that  which  always 
stamps  human  existence  as  something  petty  and  in- 
adequate—that which  brings  to  the  mind  our  long 
distance  from  the  goals  of  life — transforms  itself  into 
a  testimony  for  the  reality  and  the  altitude  of  these 
goals  ;  thus  the  greatness  of  the  Spiritual  and  Divine 
appears  clearly  in  the  pettiness  of  the  human. 

Thus,  a  depth  of  things  is  unmistakable  in  all 
hindrance,  and  such  a  depth  makes  clear  the  impossi- 
bility of  a  simple  negation.  Also,  all  the  darkness 
leaves  no  doubt  that  the  Divine  emerges,  first  of  all, 
not  from  the  outermost  boundary  of  our  life,  but 
through  a  creativeness  and  activity  in  the  inmost  life 
itself.  In  the  form  in  which  this  work  of  the  Divine 
appears  first  of  all,  it  certainly  negates  more  than  it 
affirms :  there  does  not  result  the  construction  of  a 
kingdom  of  pure  reason,  but  there  is  prevented  all  satis- 
faction for  man  in  merely  human  things  ;  all  attempts 
of  a  self-revolving  and  of  an  anchorage  in  the  merely 
human  province  are  opposed,  and  an  inflexible  tribunal 
is  exercised  towards  all  self-sufficiency  and  towards 
all  self-adulation  of  human  nature. 

This  appears  clearly  in  a  twofold  direction.  On 
the  one  hand,  it  is  seen  in  the  power  of  logical 
thought,  in  which  something  superior  to  all  human 
opinion  and  inclination  appears  which  shows  fear- 
lessly the  weal  and  woe  of  mere  man.  The  movement 
of  thought  marches  forward,  is  driven  and  linked  solely 
through  its  own  necessities  ;  all  the  attempts  of  man 
to  draw  such  necessities  into  his  own  track  and  to 
adjust  them  to  his  aims  are  lamentably  stranded. 
Certain    ideas    have   appeared,   they    have    won    us, 


THE   OPPOSITION   CONSIDERED  357 

they  were  welcomed  by  us  so  far  as  they  performed 
for  us  some  service  and  did  not  lay  too  great  a 
sacrifice  upon  us.  In  such  a  situation  we  might, 
as  individuals  and  classes,  have  retained  such  ideas 
and  placed  on  one  side  certain  uncongenial  circum- 
stances ;  we  might  have  shaped  them  so  that  they 
might  fit  comfortably  into  our  plans.  But  how- 
ever much  we  might  labour  and  trouble,  however 
much  we  might  attempt  to  turn  the  current  with  all 
zeal  and  perseverance,  it  helps  us  nothing,  because 
logical  ideas  will  not  allow  themselves  to  be  bent  and 
turned  ;  a  secure  superiority  over  all  the  contents  of 
time  is  presented  to  weakness  and  awkwardness  when 
they  possess  the  conclusions  of  thought  and  bring 
these  to  a  clear  expression.  Thus,  we  find  a  secure 
superiority  of  thought  over  all  the  undertakings  of 
mere  man. 

A  similar  conclusion  presents  itself  in  the  appear- 
ance of  contradictions  in  human  life.  Pointed  con- 
tradictions may  lie  within  the  bounds  of  an  epoch, 
and  may  cause  no  unrest  or  disturbance  so  long  as 
they  do  not  pass  into  consciousness.  Hut  a  moment 
arrives  when  this  happens,  and  when  it  happens,  all 
the  possibilities  of  repression,  enfeeblement,  and  cheer- 
ful accommodation  disappear;  then  the  higher  asser- 
tions develop  their  full  strength,  and  the  opposition  to 
them  is  unceremoniously  ended  ;  happiness,  rest,  and 
the  earthly  welfare  of  man  become  secondary  things. 
It  has  happened  thus  in  political  and  social  move- 
ments. 

The  encounter  between  such  a  progressiveness  of 
logical  conclusions  and  such  an  irreconcilability  of  the 
opposites  creates  a  universal  dialectic,  which  docs  not 


358  THE   OPPOSITION   TO    RELIGION 

move  in  the  precise  forms  presented  by  Hegel,  but 
whose  mighty  power  is  unmistakable  in  human  life. 
The  Spiritual  Life  always  steps  on  a  special  path  with- 
in the  human  ground,  and  the  following  of  this  path 
leads  necessarily  to  a  strong  one-sidedness,  where  the 
success  itself  engenders  more  and  more  error.  Now, 
a  rejection  of  this  error  does  not  result  through  a 
toning  down  of  the  assertions  that  are  made,  or 
through  the  breaking  off  of  points  and  angles,  but 
through  a  sudden  change  into  an  entirely  real — not 
logical — opposite ;  after  such  a  change,  a  new  power 
is  conferred  on  man,  and  yet  he  follows  his  track  with 
the  same  exclusiveness  until  it  threatens  to  pre- 
dominate over  the  truth,  and  one  sudden  change  after 
another  enables  the  man  probably  to  enter  into  a 
new  direction.  Such  movements  fill  the  history  of 
the  world  with  their  smaller  and  greater  waves ; 
whether  a  positive  progress  towards  reason  is  to  be 
found  in  them,  can  in  no  manner  be  discovered. 
Viewed  externally,  the  waves  seem  to  run  in  an 
aimless  ebb  and  flow.  However,  it  is  certain  that 
all  ascent  and  descent,  all  "becoming"  and  passing 
away,  lie  on  the  other  side  of  the  interests  of  the 
individual,  and  are  confused  in  no  way  through  his 
wishes  and  strivings.  Such  movements  never  allow 
man  any  kind  of  rest ;  they  never  reach  a  secure 
foundation ;  they  hold  their  existence  always  in 
jeopardy  ;  they  destroy  ever  anew  all  self-satisfaction 
through  the  effects  and  creations  which  they  produce. 
Thus  spiritual  forces  rule  in  man — forces  which 
humiliate  him  profoundly,  and  which  adjudicate  him 
a  worth  only  in  so  far  as  he  decides  to  become  the 
tool  of  such  forces,  which,  in  spite  of  all  his  brilliant 


THE   OPPOSITION   CONSIDERED  359 

characteristics,  destroy  him  whenever  he  attempts  to 
stem  their  course. 

In  addition  to  this  superhuman  sovereignty  of  a 
formal  kind,  there  associates  itself  a  sovereignty  of  an 
intrinsic  kind.  It  results  in  its  characteristic  features 
in  morality,  in  its  superiority  and,  indeed,  in  its  oppo- 
sition to  all  purely  human  aims.  So  morality  must 
consider  the  natural  mode  of  man  as  something 
distant,  alien,  and  even  hostile ;  it  has  a  kind  of 
natural  instinct  against  itself;  it  is  quickly  repressed 
through  the  ordinary  everyday  experience  of  the 
human  situation,  and  is  easily  transformed  into  a 
mere  semblance.  It  gains  no  strong  positive  power 
in  such  a  situation.  On  the  other  hand,  however,  an 
influential  negative  authority  is  unmistakable.  But 
such  an  authority  renders  man  uneasy  and  brings 
clearly  before  his  mind  the  inadequacy  of  all  his 
undertakings  ;  it  exercises,  in  the  form  of  conscience, 
a  judgment  concerning  his  actions  from  which  he  is 
not  able  to  withdraw  himself  permanently  ;  it  destroys 
also  satisfaction  in  the  most  brilliant  achievements  of 
a  culture  which  believes  itself  able  to  dispense  with 
such  a  sovereignty ;  it  avenges  itself  all  along  for  all 
neglect  in  considering  that  without  such  a  sovereignty 
.ill  the  gains  of  life,  with  their  tendency  towards 
selfishness  and  pride,  threaten  to  capsize  into  peril 
and  loss. 

Matters  do  not  stand  otherwise  with  religion.  Re- 
ligion, also,  in  so  far  as  it  outgrew  superstition,  had 
the  natural  inclination  of  mere  man  more  against  than 
in  favour  of  it;  nature  docs  not  transmit  a  venera- 
tion for  a  "higher  than  itself;  and  even  where 
religion  lias  stood  in  high  external  honour,  there  have 


860  THE   OPPOSITION   TO    RELIGION 

been  many  complaints  of  the  unbelief  of  mankind. 
In  the  average  of  human  conditions,  religion  has 
always  been  more  of  a  semblance  than  of  a  reality, 
and  what  religion  has  performed  on  such  a  plane  has 
been  full  of  contradiction.  Hut  in  spite  of  all  this, 
religion  remains  a  mighty  power  of  human  life  and 
of  the  universal  movements  of  mankind.  For  it  has 
brought  forth  a  new  standard  which  makes  inadequate 
all  that  previously  sufficed  ;  it  has  shown  the  evil 
doings  of  man  and  the  limits  of  his  valuation  of  things, 
and,  along  with  this,  it  is  called  to  create  a  cleft  in 
the  inmost  soul  itself.  That  great  turn  of  religion  is 
the  raising  up  of  new  demands  to  the  level  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  and  a  blotting  out  of  what  had  hitherto 
satisfied  man.  Thus  we  find  it  most  of  all  in  the 
personality  and  life-work  of  Jesus.  Here  we  find  a 
human  existence  of  the  most  homely  and  simple 
kind,  passing  in  a  remote  corner  of  the  world,  little 
heeded  by  his  contemporaries,  and,  after  a  short- 
blossoming  life,  cruelly  put  to  death.  And  yet,  this 
life  had  an  energy  of  spirit  which  filled  it  to  the  brim  ; 
it  had  a  standard  wrhich  has  transformed  human 
existence  to  its  very  root ;  it  has  made  inadequate 
what  hitherto  seemed  to  bring  entire  happiness ;  it 
has  set  limits  to  all  petty  natural  culture ;  it  has 
stamped  as  frivolity  not  only  all  resignation  into  the 
mere  pleasures  of  life,  but  has  also  reduced  the  whole 
prior  circle  of  man  to  the  mere  world  of  sense.  Such 
a  valuation  holds  us  fast  and  refuses  to  be  weakened 
by  us  even  when  all  the  dogmas  and  usages  of  the 
Church  are  seen  through  as  human  organisations. 
That  life  of  Jesus  exercises  evermore  a  tribunal  over 
the  world  ;  and  the  majesty  of  such  an  effective  bar 


THE   OPPOSITION   CONSIDERED  361 

of  judgment  supersedes  all  the  development  of 
external  power. 

Hence,  in  spite  of  all  the  confused  state  of  human 
things,  an  elevated  Spiritual  Life  is  not  merely  an 
object  of  aspiration  and  hope,  but  also  works  in 
us  in  the  form  of  immediacy ;  first  of  all,  certainly, 
as  a  law  and  a  bar  of  judgment — as  a  power  which 
forbids  in  an  obligatory  manner  the  conclusion  that 
human  effort  is  no  more  than  the  work  of  mere  man, 
and  which  sets  forth  with  unmerciful  clearness  the 
impotence  of  all  merely  human  undertakings.  Not 
only  in  certain  directions  but  in  all  Spiritual  Life 
such  meek  and  energetic  effects  appear  with  mighty 
power. 

Man  is  incessantly  endeavouring  to  attribute  to 
himself  what  comes  only  from  the  Spiritual  Life  ;  he 
interprets  himself  as  a  standard,  as  public  opinion, 
etc.  ;  he  makes  himself  judge  over  good  and  evil,  the 
true  and  the  false.  But  when  he  presents  the 
semblance  of  truth,  lie  does  not  present  with  this 
judgment  the  energy  of  truth ;  sooner  or  later  the 
definite  standards  of  the  Spiritual  Life  make  their 
appearance  and  demolish  the  semblance.  The 
Spiritual  Life  allows  itself  provisionally  to  be  drawn 
into  the  service  of  human  aims,  but  soon  it  disengages 
itself  from  the  obscurity  and  hunianisation,  and  de- 
monstrates its  independence  and  superiority. 

All  this  remains  full  of  problems  and  mysteries,  but 
in  spite  of  the  darkness  so  much  as  this  is  certain, 
that  a  superhuman  Spiritual  Life  signifies  no  illusion. 
If  it  rules  over  us  as  a  power  of  sublimity,  as  law  and 
tribunal,  it  is  and  it  remains  a  reality  founded  on  a 
rock — safe  against  all  the  waves  of  negation. 


3(«  THE   OPPOSITION   TO   RELIGION 

8.    The  Necessity  of  Further  Manifestations 

Impossible,  however,  as  an  entire  abandonment  of 
religion  is,  the  entanglement  receives  through  religion 
more  of  another  configuration  than  of  a  satisfactory 
solution.  For  a  greater  depth  of  life  may  be  recog- 
nised on  the  other  side  of  the  province  of  the  hin- 
drances, and  a  directive  power  of  a  spiritual  kind  may 
work  within  our  existence.  We  are  not  able,  how- 
ever, to  know  whence  such  a  power  comes,  but  it  is 
a  positive  participation  in  the  Spiritual  Life  and  a 
full  vivification  of  imbedded  depths  planned  within  us. 
It  is  this  alone  which  invests  our  action  with  value, 
and  which  is  able  to  free  our  conviction  from  doubt. 
Without  such  a  turn  we  remain  permanently  in  a 
vacillating,  intermediate  position :  a  higher  world  is 
perceptible,  but  in  our  province  it  does  not  seem  able 
so  far  to  overcome  the  immense  oppositions  so  as  to 
reach  a  positive  development ;  it  has  certainly  driven 
out  all  hope  of  deriving  satisfaction  from  merely  human 
things,  but  it  has  not  granted  us  the  compensation 
of  a  new  life.  Thus,  we  do  not  see  what  the  goal  of 
our  action  is,  or  the  Why  and  the  Wherefore  of  the 
action.  Has  the  Divine  only  opened  our  eyes  in 
order  that  we  may  discover  the  immeasurable  distance 
from  us  and  our  own  vanishing  smallness  at  the  same 
time  ?  But  is  then  all  that  we  may  undertake  of 
no  avail,  and  must  not,  under  such  impressions,  all 
human  effort  break  in  pieces  ? 

Thus,  even  with  the  recognition  of  that  depth  of 
things,  and  of  that  sovereignty  of  the  Divine,  all  still 
remains  in  question ;  and  the  most  painful  dilemma 
ever  surrounds  us,  viz.  that  there  is  too  much  reason  to 


THE   OPPOSITION   CONSIDERED  363 

pronounce  a  negation  and  too  little  to  pronounce  an 
affirmation.  Si  deus,  unde  malum  ;  si  non  deus,  unde 
bonum  1  How  can  we  hope  to  escape  from  this 
dilemma  ?  All  the  previous  facts  and  reflections  do 
not  help  us  to  answer  the  question  ;  the  one  hope 
lies  in  the  fact  that  the  Divine,  through  some  kind 
of  positive  effects,  appears  in  our  circle.  It  is  only 
a  further  reality  that  can  lead  the  Yea  to  a  final 
conquest,  and,  along  with  this,  rescue  our  life  from  a 
menacing  destruction.  Therefore,  it  behoves  us  to 
look  for  this.  That  man,  in  the  upheaval  of  his  life, 
cried  for  outward  signs  and  wonders,  we  can  under- 
stand without  having  to  do  it  ourselves  ;  but  we,  too, 
remain  dependent  on  a  wonder,  on  an  ampler  and 
more  pervading  Divine,  since  this  alone  is  able  to  raise 
us  out  of  our  hitherto-prevailing  contradictions,  and 
to  guide  our  life  to  a  secure  path. 


Part   IV. — Characteristic   Religion 

INTRODUCTION 

Our  previous  discussion  has  resulted  in  a  strong  aspira- 
tion after  new  realities — after  a  further  manifestation 
of  the  Godhead.  The  counterpart  of  this  had  de- 
veloped so  powerfully  within  the  domain  of  man  that 
the  life  had  entered  into  an  entire  deadlock ;  there 
could  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  inadequacy  of  mere 
man ;  the  Divine,  however,  revealed  itself  as  law 
and  tribunal,  and  brought  new  aims  and  standards 
to  our  life,  but  it  granted  not  the  energy  to  coincide 
with  such  aims  and  standards ;  it  allowed  the  un- 
reason of  existence  to  be  unveiled  to  its  very  depth, 
but  it  did  not  lead  reason  to  a  victory  against  un- 
reason. Thus,  the  entanglement  seems  heightened 
within  us ;  what  grows  thence  into  doubt  may  not 
extend  to  the  Divine  itself,  but  man  is  saturated  with 
it,  and,  indeed,  it  robs,  life  of  all  its  significance.  Of 
what  avail  are  all  toil  and  activity  if  they  are  not 
able  to  raise  themselves  against  such  powerful  op- 
position, and  if  we  divine  a  new  world  but  find  the 
path  to  such  a  world  closed  ? 

We  have  already  seen  that  there  is  only  one  hope 
of  escaping  from  such  an  intolerable  situation :  the 
Divine  Life  and  Being  must  reveal  itself  still  further 

364 


INTRODUCTION  365 

in  the  midst  of  the  needs  and  struggles  of  our  ex- 
istence ;  such  a  new  reality  alone  can  prevent  an 
inner  collapse  of  life,  and  turn  doubt  and  depression 
into  fixity  of  purpose  and  joyousness.  Does  there 
indeed  result  such  a  turn  ? 

A  belief  in  this  runs  through  humanity ;  it  speaks 
out  of  all  religions,  and  has  attained  an  independence 
over  against  culture,  and  has  brought  forth  from  the 
so-called  historical   and   positive  religions   a  charac- 
teristic  world  of  thought.     For  to  all  religions  be- 
longed the  desire  not  so  much  to  assist  in  obtaining 
the  whole  of  the  Spiritual  Life  through  man's  own 
achievement,  as  to  bring  forth  something  new,  and 
to  gain  the  whole  soul  for  this.     Over  against  the 
chaotic   darkness   of  human    existence  they  created 
their   own    kingdom    and    rescued    in    this,    as    in    a 
sheltering  ark,  the  ideals  of  humanity  ;  this  kingdom, 
however,    seemed  especially  strong  through  what  it 
possessed  in  discernment  and  uniqueness.     The  his- 
torical religions,  through  such  a  configuration,  appear 
as  an  answer  to  the  question  which  presented  itself 
in  our    prior    investigation — an    answer  not  through 
ideas    and    doctrines    but    through    life    and    act,    an 
answer  not  of  the  mere  individual  but  of  the  cor- 
porate experience  of  humanity.      A  pity  only,  that 
where    we    long    for    an    unerring    certainty    soon    a 
strife  breaks  out.  and  that  where  we  desire  one  answer 
the    historical    religions    offer    many    and    conflict  Jul; 
answers.        How    is    this?       Do    the    various     claims 
destroy  one  another,  and  docs  hope  of  help  disappear 
at  the  same  time  '.      Or  docs  all  the  ramification  allow 
a   universal    truth    to    break    forth      -a    truth    which 
promises  to  guard    us  and    to   lead    us   farther? 


PART  IV.— CHARACTERISTIC  RELIGION 

(Continued) 

CHAPTER  XI 

a.  The  Historical  Religions 

1.   The  Fact  of  Religions 

Our  introduction  dealt  briefly  with  the  historical 
religions,  but  it  is  our  aim  now  in  a  more  precise 
manner  to  conceive  of  their  significance  and  great- 
ness, and  to  consider  what  is  problematic  in  them. 
That  such  religions  present  a  unique  mode  of  life 
over  against  the  ordinary  world  and  reason,  is  shown 
by  the  mode  of  their  origin.  For  they  do  not  grow 
in  a  calm  kind  of  way  from  the  ordinary  work  of 
thought,  but  appear  as  an  entirely  new  beginning  in 
great  personalities,  who,  as  mediators  between  the 
Godhead  and  the  world,  announce  the  will  of  God 
to  humanity,  and  establish  a  closer  communion 
between  the  Godhead  and  humanity.  The  precise 
content  of  the  message  and  the  mode  of  communion 
decide  the  characteristic  nature  of  the  particular 
religions ;  for  religion  may  be  understood  as  a  con- 
joint struggle  for  goodness,  light,  and  purity  as  means 
of  protection  from  evil  spirits  as  in  Parseeism ;  it 
may  be  a  bond  formed  between  God  and  his  chosen 
people,  which  leads  to  a  stricter  fulfilment  of  the  law 

366 


THE   HISTORICAL   RELIGIONS  367 

and  to  a  corresponding  retribution  as  in  Judaism ; 
it  may  finally  be  a  Kingdom  of  God  which  binds  all 
men  to  their  Heavenly  Father  in  mutual  love,  and 
which,  indeed,  leads  to  a  union  of  the  Divine  and 
the  human  natures  as  in  Christianity.  Religion 
ever  founds  a  unique  communion  of  life  with  God  ; 
it  ever  allows  such  a  communion  to  engender  a  new 
reality  which  will  signify  not  a  mere  addendum  to 
the  remaining  life,  but  the  kernel  of  the  whole.  The 
conceptions  of  God,  the  tasks  of  life,  spiritual  great- 
ness and  values,  shape  themselves  characteristically 
and  incomparably  in  accordance  with  the  quality  of 
the  new  life.  Thus,  each  religion  has  its  own  view 
of  the  universe  and  its  own  morality.  And  it  is  from 
this  individual  and  underivable  characteristic  that 
religion  feels  itself  mighty  and  hopes  for  redemption. 
Such  an  independence  and  individuality  were  at- 
tained by  religions  especially  through  the  greatness 
and  energy  of  their  founders.  To  these  founders  the 
new  kingdom  was  no  vague  outline  and  no  feeble 
hope,  but  all  stood  clear  in  front  of  them ;  the 
kingdom  was  so  real  to  their  souls  and  filled  them  so 
exclusively  that  the  whole  sensuous  world  was  re- 
duced by  them  to  a  semblance  and  a  shadow  if  they 
could  not  otherwise  gain  a  new  value  from  a  superior 
power.  The  new  world  could  attain  to  such  im- 
mediacy and  impressiveness  only  because  a  regal 
imagination  wrestled  for  a  unique  picture  in  the 
tangled  heap  of  lite,  and  held  it  up  over  against  all 
the  confusion,  and  because  it  invested  this  picture  with 
the  clearesl  outlines  and  the  most  vivid  colours. 
Thus,    the     new     world     dawns    on     humanity    with 

fascinating  power,  rousing  if  out  of  the  sluggishness 


368  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

of  daily  routine,  binding  it  through  a  corporate  aim, 
raising  inspiring  ardour  through  radiant  promises  and 
terrible  threats,  and  creating  achievements  other- 
wise impossible.  This  prepared  road  into  the  king- 
dom of  the  invisible,  this  creation  of  a  new  reality 
which  is  no  merely  serene  kind  of  play  but  a  deep 
seriousness,  this  inversion  of  worlds  which  pushes 
sensuous  existence  down  into  a  distance  and  which 
prepares  a  home  for  man  within  the  kingdom  of 
faith — all  this  is  the  greatest  achievement  that  has 
ever  been  undertaken  and  that  has  ever  worked  upon 
human  soil.  In  order  to  accomplish  all  this,  the 
founders  must  be  great  thinkers,  and  far  more  than 
being  thinkers  they  must  be  great  artists,  and  far 
more  than  being  artists  they  must  be  heroes  of  action. 
And,  at  the  same  time,  they  must  be  raised  above 
all  action  to  a  secure  repose  in  an  Eternal  Order,  and 
be  possessed  of  homely  simplicity  and  a  deeply  child- 
like nature  in  the  midst  of  all  the  complications 
and  excitement  of  world-transforming  power.  Conse- 
quently it  becomes  easily  conceivable  how  the  estima- 
tion of  their  adherents  raised  the  founders  beyond 
all  human  measurements  to  a  likeness  to  God,  and, 
indeed,  to  an  equality  with  God.  Their  works 
seemed  to  carry  within  them  Divine  energies ; 
wonders  surrounded  their  paths ;  their  life  and  being 
bridged  securely  the  gulf  between  heaven  and  earth. 

Thus,  it  became  of  the  greatest  importance  to 
acknowledge  these  personalities  in  order  to  bring  life 
into  a  secure  track.  But  the  reality  founded  in  God 
became  at  the  same  time  an  enormous  task  for  man. 
The  new  life  had  to  be  assimilated,  to  be  developed,  and 
to  enforce  its  way  against  a  hostile  world  ;  thus  man 


THE   HISTORICAL   RELIGIONS  369 

became  a  co-worker  with  God,  and  his  life  through 
this  gained  immeasurably  in  value.  Out  of  such  a 
blending- work  a  corporate  circle  grew  up ;  high 
aims  and  great  hopes  united  men  together  and 
drove  their  energies  to  the  utmost  tension ;  in 
united  convictions  and  their  fundamental  experi- 
ences men  found  the  help  of  God  entirely  certain, 
and  were  fully  armed  against  all  doubts  and 
temptations. 

The  rights  of  what  had  been  discovered  as  truth  in 
such  a  new  world  could  not  be  set  aside  by  general 
reason.  For  it  was  precisely  in  that  which  brought 
something  new  over  against  such  reason  that  the 
energy  and  strength  were  to  be  found ;  therefore,  the 
New  must  stand  upon  its  own  particular  kind  of 
proof,  and  thus  it  comes  to  possess  an  actuality 
against  all  reason,  and  demands  for  such  an  actuality 
a  willing  acknowledgment  of  the  confiding  faith  of 
man.  The  conception  of  faith  received  through  this 
a  more  definite  meaning  than  is  presented  in  the 
universal  delineation  of  religion.  It  is  not  mainly 
a  revelation  of  God  that  stands  here  in  question 
but  this  special  revelation  existing  in  the  midst  of 
history;  the  Yea  bound  itself  more  definitely  with  a 
Nay,  and  the  acknowledgment  bound  itself  with  an 
exclusion.  Here,  the  thought  of  the  underivableness 
of  the  truth  easily  became  excessive,  so  that  the  con- 
tradiction of  reason  was  welcomed  as  an  evidence  of 
the  incomparable  and  superhuman  character  of  the 
new  truth,  and  a  credo  (///in  absurdum  inspired  joy. 
In  any  case,  one  felt  certain  and  joyful  in  the  possession 
of  a  truth  on  the  other  side  of  all  the  complical  ions  and 

unnecessary  formalities  of  brooding  reason  ;  this  truth 

24 


370  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

iilone  seemed  accessible  to  man  independently  of  the 
position  of  intellectual  development ;  deep-penetrating 
spirits,  however,  could  point  to  the  justification  of 
what  they  held  in  the  fact  that  all  mediate  knowledge 
in  the  last  resort  rests  upon  something  that  is  evident 
only  in  the  form  of  immediacy,  and  that  the  final  root 
of  reality  is  to  be  conceived  as  an  act  of  freedom  which 
is  simply  non-derivable. 

To  such  a  positiveness  of  the  foundation  there 
corresponds  in  historical  religions  a  positiveness  of 
content.  We  have  already  seen  religion,  in  general, 
dividing  life  into  a  For  or  Against,  and  creat- 
ing an  enormous  movement,  and  all  this  in  the 
historical  religions  experiences  a  general  enhance- 
ment. As  the  affirmation  here  is  more  precise  and  is 
traced  out  in  an  enclosed  circle  of  life,  much  is  pushed 
out  to  the  opposite  side — even  much  that  belongs  to 
the  Spiritual  Life  itself — and  thus  the  tension  and 
struggle  must  become  incomparably  harder.  But 
this  may  signify  from  the  standpoint  of  historical 
religion  simply  a  gain,  because  it  will  more  than 
anything  else  lift  life  out  of  the  idle  indifference  which 
forms  the  worst  enemy  of  all  spiritual  movement ; 
it  will,  too,  exercise  an  energetic  counter-effect  to  all 
that  is  small  and  mean,  which  otherwise  chokes  human 
life  ;  it  will,  through  such  a  concentration,  consolidate 
life  securely  in  itself  and  place  it  on  a  foundation 
which  seems  simply  indestructible. 

We  have  noticed  the  opposition  to  religion  turning 
into  a  doubt  whether  man,  in  spite  of  all  his  efforts, 
penetrated  in  any  kind  of  way  to  truth  ;  whether  the 
union  of  the  Divine  and  the  human,  which  con- 
stitutes the  kernel  of  religion,   reaches  any  measure 


THE    HISTORICAL   RELIGIONS  371 

of  success.  Historical  religion  overcomes  this  doubt 
from  its  very  root  and  in  the  whole  of  its  extent. 
For  historical  religion  causes  the  Divine  to  enter  into 
the  province  of  man,  and  makes  the  effective  com- 
munion the  soul  of  all  life.  Through  such  a  definite 
union  of  the  Divine  and  the  human,  the  image 
and  the  conception  of  the  Godhead  transform  them- 
selves at  the  same  time.  How  could  the  Godhead  be 
moved  by  human  need,  and,  on  the  other  side,  how 
accept  the  help  of  man  ?  How  could  the  Godhead 
bind  itself  to  an  inner  communion  with  us  unless  it 
left  its  superhuman  abode  and  dwelt  among  men  ? 
If,  thus,  the  human  appears  as  essentially  related  to 
the  Divine,  or  if  the  human  is  raised  beyond  all 
narrowness  and  particularity  through  the  descent  of 
the  Divine  into  its  nature,  the  human  may  assign  the 
highest  conceptions  of  its  own  circle  to  the  Divine, 
and  thus  it  penetrates  beyond  the  colourless  concep- 
tion of  the  Godhead  to  the  conception  of  a  living  and 
personal  God  who  is  present  in  the  form  of  immediacy, 
and  with  whom  the  soul  can  converse  as  an  I  with  a 
Thou.  If  man  owes  his  greatness  to  the  fact  of 
a  communion  with  the  Divine  alone,  then  it  is  not 
an  anthropomorphism  which  the  man  holds;  but  a 
return  from  the  image  to  a  prototype  takes  place 
when  man,  from  the  best  in  his  own  nature,  traces 
out  an  image  of  the  Godhead. 

Through  such  an  approximation  of  God  to  man,  the 
union  between  both  could  develop  far  more  inward- 
ness- an    inwardness   which    is  able   to  dispense  with 

all  relationship  to  the  world,  and  which  is  even 
able  to  exercise  its  entire  energy  in  opposition  to 
the   world.      It   is   here   therefore   that    the   individual 


872  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

acquires  a  value,  because  it  is  here  that  the  Highest 
Nature  concerns  itself  with  him ;  here  man  may 
have  intercourse  with  the  Divine  as  with  his  best 
friend ;  here  originates  a  religious  emotional  life — a 
piety  in  conscious  opposition  to  all  external  forms 
and  productions.  In  such  a  religious  emotional  life 
there  develops  a  pure  life  within  itself  of  the  Spirit ; 
here  a  sanctuary  unassailable  from  all  strife  and  alarm 
is  found ;  here  a  pure  stream  flows  from  which 
life  is  able  to  refresh  itself  ever  anew  with  energy. 
Through  their  achievements  within  their  own  province 
the  historical  religions  have  worked  mightily  upon 
the  whole  of  life  and  have  implanted  into  it  an 
energetic  motive  for  the  deepening  of  the  self ;  wide 
circles  of  the  human  race  have  gained  an  energetic 
emotional  life  through  such  religions.  As  soon  as 
religion  relaxes,  the  inwardness  turns  into  insecurity 
and  succumbs  to  the  power  of  the  intrusive  external 
world. 

A  union  so  intimate  and  so  fervent  with  God 
would  have  repelled  all  relationship  with  the  world, 
and  would  have  made  all  work  for  the  world  so 
indifferent  if  the  historical  religions  had  not  created 
by  the  side  of  the  formation  of  such  inwardness 
a  visible  sphere  of  life,  and  had  not  united  men  most 
intimately  witli  each  other.  And  how  could  these 
religions  abstain  from  such  a  creation,  since  they  were 
concerned  fully  to  develop  the  fellowship  of  life  mani- 
fested by  them  and  to  maintain  such  in  the  midst  of  a 
hostile  world  ?  Thus,  there  arose  communities  and 
churches  governed  by  religion  which  presented  them- 
selves as  the  soul  and  kernel  of  the  whole  of  life. 
In    these   religion    gained   a    visible   presence;    here 


THE    HISTORICAL   RELIGIONS  373 

the  Divine  seemed  to  flow  intimately  into  the  human. 
On  account  of  this,  such  institutions  became  in  the 
course  of  their  development  the  main  evidences  for 
the  power  and  truth  of  religion  as  well  as  a  solid 
bulwark  against  doubt.  Life  was  here  brought  into 
a  secure  path  ;  here  a  pointed  distinction  between 
friend  and  foe  was  accomplished ;  here  individuals 
united  themselves  in  a  co-operation  not  only  of 
character  but  also  of  work.  Man,  in  the  inmost  depth 
of  his  being,  was  here  united  with  the  fellowship, 
because  nothing  other  than  this  fellowship  could 
grant  and  guarantee  a  Divine  revelation  superior  to 
all  subjective  reflection.  Thus,  a  withdrawal  from 
the  fellowship  appeared  as  a  falling  from  truth. 

True,  difficult  entanglements  are  imbedded  in  all 
this,  and  perhaps,  also,  contradictions  ;  and  these  will 
shortly  occupy  our  attention.  But,  without  a  doubt,  a 
great  fact  and  a  mighty  enrichment  of  human  life  are 
to  be  recognised  in  the  historical  religions.  Through 
the  concentration  which  they  accomplish  and  represent, 
they  have  bestowed  upon  history  incomparably  greater 
intrinsic  value,  contrast,  and  movement  what  other- 
wise threatens  to  dissolve  into  sheer  unintelligible- 
ness ;  they  have  incarnated  in  flesh  and  blood  ;  they 
have  gained  wide  spheres  of  the  human  race  for 
spiritual  things;  and  they  have  raised,  in  the  midst 
of  our  world,  an  over-world  of  the  most  mighty 
power.  If,  then,  every  unbiassed  view  is  compelled 
to  acknowledge  here  a  great  and,  indeed,  a  unique 
phenomenon,  it  means  that  a  decisive  and  final  turn  has 
resulted  for  men  through  their  entrance  into  historical 
religion.  Life  can  no  more  come  to  a  deadlock,  and 
doubt  can   no  more   harm  where  (iod,  over    against 


;J74  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

the  world,  has  revealed  Himself  to  man  and  never 
ceases  to  reveal  Himself. 

2.  The  Opposition  to  Religions 
History  bears  testimony  to  the  mighty  effect  of 
religions,  but  none  the  less  does  it  show  an  incessant 
counter-effect ;  in  spite  of  their  development  of 
power,  religions  are  always  objects  which  are  spoken 
against.  Such  an  opposition  formed  an  undercurrent 
wherever  religion  stood  externally  in  an  entirely 
secure  sovereignty.  The  constant  complaints  as  to 
the  indifference  and  the  unbelief  of  its  adherents  show 
this.  Whenever  the  relaxation  of  the  social  pressure 
permitted  a  free  articulation,  doubt  grew  quickly  into 
a  dangerous  power,  and  threatened  religion  in  the 
whole  of  its  existence.  If  Augustine  was  right  in 
stating  that  religion,  as  an  historico-social  institution, 
cannot  subsist  without  a  strong  authority  {sine 
quodam  gravi  autoritatis  imperio),  he  indicated,  at 
the  same  time,  how  slightly  religion  roots  itself  in  the 
inwardness  of  man.  But  it  is  not  mere  individuals  or 
even  mankind  at  large,  who,  from  an  insipid  disposi- 
tion, raise  ever  new  doubts ;  there  are  also  entangle- 
ments of  an  actual  kind — hesitations  and  doubts 
within  the  Spiritual  Life  itself,  and  which  work 
for  a  painful  upheaval  of  the  whole. 

First  of  all,  it  is  the  plurality  of  historical  religions 
which  produces  alienation  and  uncertainty.  Religions 
themselves  aimed  at  placing  the  facts  on  one  side ; 
indeed,  they  engendered  a  flame  of  passion  against 
the  facts.  Through  such  an  opposition  to  other 
modes  of  thought  and  religion — modes  which  ap- 
peared to  the  advocates  of  the  "  chosen  "  religion  as 


THE   HISTORICAL   RELIGIONS  375 

a  web  of  human  folly,  and,  indeed,  as  a  deception  of 
the  devil — the  greatest  energy  was  awakened  and  the 
most  frantic  passions  were  not  only  tolerated  but 
commended.  Religions,  in  their  struggle  against  one 
another,  have  fettered  the  soul  of  man  to  themselves ; 
also,  within  the  individual  religions  such  a  schism 
has  heightened  work  and  zeal,  and  when  peace  was 
brought  about,  it  brought  inevitably  along  with  itself 
an  enervation.  Struggle  is  the  life-element  of  his- 
torical religions,  for  it  alone  seems  able  to  set  the 
truth  in  full  light,  and  to  carry  the  energy  to  its 
greatest  tension. 

But  the  problems  are  not  solved  by  the  mere 
declaration  of  their  solution  by  religion.  Questions 
and  doubts  do  not  allow  themselves  to  be  banished 
out  of  the  world  by  interdicts  and  threats.  So  long 
as  man  remains  within  an  enclosed  social  sphere 
and  brands  all  that  exists  outside  that  sphere  as 
a  monstrous  folly,  so  long  is  he  able  unhesitatingly 
to  consider  his  own  religion  as  the  only  true  one. 
Modern  man,  however,  has  outgrown  such  narrow- 
ness ;  he  surveys  the  different  provinces  of  culture 
and  also  of  the  various  religions;  an  historical  mode 
of  observation  compels  him  to  estimate  religions  in 
their  connections,  to  enter  deeply  into  these  con- 
nections, and  to  seek  their  validity.  The  more  he 
does   this,  the  more  uncertain    becomes   the  exclusive 

\  alidity  of  his  own  religion.  The  sincerity  of  convic- 
tion and  the  passion  of  belief  of  the  remaining  religions 
are  not  less  strong  and  genuine  than  those  of  our 
own  religion  ;  they.  too.  rest  upon  great  personalities  ; 
they  have  their  si^ns  and  wonders,  and.  what  signifies 
more,  they  have   their   heroes  and   martyrs;  and  they 


876  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

have  moved  individuals  from  the  depth  of  their  souls 
as  well  as  surged  through  the  history  of  the  world 
with  mighty  power.  What  right  have  we  to  interpret 
these  phenomena  outside  our  own  sphere  as  fancy  and 
deception  whilst  our  own  phenomena  are  of  the  same 
nature,  and  these  are  considered  by  us  as  solid  facts 
and  as  safe  citadels  of  truth  ?  Could  the  ideal  world 
and  the  life-constructions  of  many  millions  and  whole 
millenniums  originate  through  bare  illusion  ?  What 
secures  us,  against  all  this,  that  it  is  not  similar  with 
us  and  that  our  belief,  too,  has  not  been  revealed 
from  on  high  but  has  issued  from  purely  human 
ruminating  ?  Or  shall  we  value  ourselves  and  others 
by  different  weights  and  measures  as  the  fanaticism 
of  all  times  has  done  but  which  has  by  no  means 
been  sanctioned  by  justice  ? 

But  perhaps  religions  will  deal  with  a  proof 
obtained  through  a  comparison  of  their  most  im- 
portant achievements,  and  thus  seek  to  demonstrate 
the  characteristic  superiority  of  such  achievements 
over  all  else.  But  does  that  demonstrate  their  truth, 
their  absolute  truth,  their  Divine  truth  ?  The 
achievements  lead  into  the  province  of  relativities ; 
one  achievement  may  largely  overtop  all  the  others, 
but  it  remains  still  an  open  question  whether  such 
an  achievement  is  the  final,  the  highest,  and  the  all- 
inclusive.  Further,  the  human  and  historical  situation 
is  not  a  product  of  religion  alone,  but  varied  move- 
ments run  crossways  through  the  situation,  so  that 
it  is  hardly  possible  to  decide  whether  that  which 
happened  within  the  life-circle  of  religion  happened 
from  religion's  own  energy,  or  whether  it  has  not 
proceeded,  in  a  far  greater  measure,  from  the  more 


THE    HISTORICAL   RELIGIONS  377 

or  less  gifted  nature  of  peoples,  from  the  characteristic 
greatness  of  special  personalities,  from  the  favour  of 
external  circumstances,  etc. 

For  example,  is  Christianity  indebted  to  its  most 
important  origins  and  its  religious  contents  alone? 
Is  it  not  also  indebted  to  its  union  with  highly-gifted 
peoples,  to  its  coalescence  with  the  rich  and  beautiful 
culture  of  antiquity,  and  to  modern  culture  for  the 
revival  and  restoration  of  its  youth  ? 

The  questions,  however,  which  most  religions  set 
us,  lead  back  to  the  fundamental  problem,  as  to  how 
far,  in  the  main,  an  historical  religion  can  manifest 
absolute  truth  ;  and,  also,  as  to  the  doubt  whether  such 
a  religion's  concentration  of  life  does  not  inevitably 
involve  a  contraction  whose  detriment  counterbalances 
all  gain,  and  which  may  transform  all  gain  into  a  loss. 
The  proof  offered  by  a  positive  religion  is  in  its  nature 
an  historical  kind :  certain  events  are  exhibited ;  a 
certain  spiritual  content  is  announced  as  a  revelation. 
Even  if  we  admit  that  there  is  not  the  least  doubt 
concerning  the  events,  yet  an  historical  existence  can 
never  prove  of  itself  that  a  certain  fact  is  of  Divine 
origin  and  its  content  is  an  ultimate  truth,  for  such 
a  claim  can  be  proved  only  through  the  ideas  and 
convictions  into  which  it  is  brought;  and  such  a 
conclusion  never  conies  to  man  from  without,  but 
is  founded  in  his  own  inwardness  by  the  whole  of 
his  life.  In  the  historical  data  it  is  impossible  to 
recognise  the  Divine  as  Divine  without  antecedent 
conceptions  as  to  the  nature  of  the  Divine,  and 
without  the  standard  imbedded  in  such  conceptions; 
for  otherwise,  religion  and  magic,  faith  and  super- 
stition,   could    not    be    separated    from    one    another. 


•378  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

This  train  of  thought  lends  necessarily  to  the  point 
that  all  the  argument  of  history  must  rest  upon  the 
immediate  life  itself,  and  that  the  intrinsic  nature  of 
the  truth  of  all  historical  facts  can  be  measured  by 
the  Spiritual  Life  alone.  Here  Lessing's  well-known 
words  meet  us :  "  Accidental  truths  of  history  can 
never  become  the  proof  of  the  necessary  truths  of 
reason."  Though  this  may  carry  in  its  form  the  past 
mark  of  the  Aufkldrung,  its  kernel  contains  a  truth 
which  it  is  not  so  easy  to  get  over  as  was  supposed  by 
the  historical  positivism  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
True,  history  at  the  present  day  has  come  to  mean 
incomparably  more  to  us  than  it  used  to,  and  it  may 
deem  such  a  course  of  thought  as  antiquated,  and 
for  which  it  has  no  place ;  but  he  who  is  not  to  fall 
into  a  destructive  relativism  must  conceive  of  history 
as  being  encompassed  and  borne  along  by  an  intimate 
and  timeless  Spiritual  Life  which  relegates  history  with 
all  its  accumulation  to  a  secondary  place.  But,  also, 
historical  religion  is  through  this  withdrawn  to  a 
secondary  place,  and  it  can  by  no  means  become  the 
final  basis  of  our  religious  conviction,  and  by  no 
means  can  its  greatest  achievements  in  the  realm  of 
time  prove  its  eternal  truth.  And  if  religion  is  to 
secure  a  basis  at  all,  it  must  secure  it  in  eternal  truth. 
Doubt,  however,  does  not  merely  remain  in  the 
mode  of  the  foundation,  it  also  attacks  the  content  of 
historical  religion,  and  even  combats  that  wherein  it 
seeks  its  strength — the  distinctive,  the  unique,  the 
super-rational ;  and,  further,  the  definite  union  of  the 
Divine  and  the  human — the  kernel  of  all  religion — 
turns  into  doubt,  and  fashions  itself  into  an  inner 
prejudice  towards  the  Divine.     The  historical  religions 


THE    HISTORICAL   RELIGIONS  379 

cannot  claim  for  themselves  a  definite  relationship 
to  the  Godhead  without  having  to  leave  out  of  account 
portions  of  human  nature.  And  yet  we  hear  occasion- 
ally to-day  people  speak  of  a  "  God  of  the  Christian," 
and  who  seek  therein  a  special  strength  of  belief. 
Does  not  this  lead  to  the  path  of  a  particularism  which 
lies  not  very  far  from  the  belief  of  a  primitive  stage  of 
culture  in  special  national  gods  ?  And  as  to  each 
historical  religion  every  other  religion  seems  false,  so 
here,  all  religious  mode  of  thought  of  a  more  universal 
kind  will  appear  to  such  a  particularism  as  unreal 
and  worthless.  At  the  height  of  Hellenism,  in  men 
such  as  /Eschylus,  Pindar,  and  Plato,  particularism  can 
recognise  no  genuine  religion  ;  and  it  will  exclude  the 
leaders  of  modern  culture — men  such  as  Leibniz  and 
Kant,  Schiller  and  Goethe.  Mow  close  lies  such  a 
narrowness  of  belief  to  a  pharisaic  self-righteousness 
of  small  souls  who  have  never  laboured  and  grieved 
for  the  truth  !  Hut  how  is  this  danger  to  be  avoided 
if  the  affirmation  of  historical  religion  is  considered  as 
the  sole  source  of  truth?  And  who  can  find  fault 
with  anyone  who  would  rather  side  witli  the  men  in 
all  of  whom  there  was  something  great — for  there  is  no 
greatness  without  independence  with  the  unbelievers, 
than  be  included  in  the  army  of  believers  ? 

Further,  it  is  not  easy  to  accept  the  statement,  viz. 
that  historical  religion  draws  inevitably  the  Godhead 
into  the  arena  of  time  and  thus  into  variableness. 
Such  could  happen  if  the  Godhead  did  not  pervade 
the  whole  of  time  with  eternal  truth,  but  had  opened, 
only  at    a  special    moment,   its    inmost   essence,   and 

had  in  this   manner  communicated    that  essence  to 
human  nature.     To  place  a  variableness  in  God  means 


880  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

nothing  less  than  to  surrender  the  absoluteness  of 
truth  ;  it  means  no  less  than  to  leave  the  field  to 
a  blind  positiveness  and  a  destructive  relativism. 
Augustine,  a  man  wont  to  think  out  any  thought 
he  had  laid  hold  of,  has  in  the  main  tendency 
of  his  conviction— in  another  direction  he  is  more 
rational — maintained  that  prior  to  the  advent  of 
Christianity,  not  only  were  beliefs  concerning 
morality  different,  but  morality  itself  was  something 
different  from  what  it  subsequently  became ;  prior  to 
Christianity  things  were  allowed  which  were  forbidden 
after  its  advent.  This  is  consistent  thinking  from 
the  standpoint  of  a  merely  positive  religion.  But  it 
shows,  at  the  same  time,  that  such  a  mode  of  thinking 
even  transforms  morality  into  a  fluctuating  precept, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  inwardly  destroys  it. 

Also,  the  closer  union  of  man  with  the  Godhead 
and  the  clearer  representation  of  this  union  which 
the  historical  religions  have  striven  to  present  are 
of  a  double-sided  kind,  and  produce  a  colossal 
complexity.  Indeed,  if  in  that  intimacy  the  human 
arises  too  easily  and  perpetually  to  the  Deity,  not 
seldom  has  the  Divine  been  drawn  down  into  the 
narrowness  and  passions  of  the  human  situation ! 
But  in  the  very  conception  of  God  there  are  diffi- 
culties which  are  very  perceptible.  The  idea  of 
personality  is  to  render  comprehensible  the  incom- 
prehensible, and  to  bring  the  representation  of 
the  Godhead  nearer  to  a  man ;  but  how  power- 
fully does  an  anthropomorphism  pervade  such  an 
idea  and  render  it  extremely  dangerous,  as  it  so 
easily  resolves  itself  into  a  mere  replica  of  man's 
own    nature !     And    does   the    religious    relationship 


THE   HISTORICAL   RELIGIONS  381 

which  develops  on  this  ground  bring  with  itself, 
always  and  with  certainty,  a  spiritual  elevation — an 
inner  transformation  of  man  ?  How  often  do  we  ex- 
perience immeasurable  waves  of  subjective  feeling ! 
How  often  do  an  egotistic  desire  after  success  and 
a  passionate  excitation  believe  themselves  justified 
and  even  consecrated  by  religion  itself!  Or,  again, 
positive  religion  is,  through  its  aspiration  after  a 
reality  superior  to  all  brooding  reflection — after  a 
tangible  and  incontestable  reality — tempted  to  estab- 
lish a  sensuous  and  even  a  materialistic  mode  of 
pictorial  ideas,  and,  indeed,  to  announce  with  special 
zeal  what  has  been  left  behind  by  the  movement  of 
the  Spiritual  Life.  Thus,  definite  religion  is  measured 
by  the  doctrine  of  the  sacraments  which  easily  de- 
generate into  mere  magical  charm  ;  thus,  many  even 
to-day  believe  that  Christianity  is  threatened  at  its 
root  if  the  belief  in  a  reconciliation  through  the 
blood  of  Christ  does  not  form  the  core  of  its  nature. 
Wherever  men  insist  primarily  upon  positiveness  in 
religion,  the  danger  of  a  relapse  into  an  under-spiritual 
stage  lies  perilously  near.  Plotinus  had  good  reason 
for  giving  the  warning  that  man  should  not  sink  back 
below  reason  whilst  striving  to  rise  above  it.  The 
historical  religions  certainly  represent  a  justifiable 
and  even  a  necessary  aspiration  when  they  recon- 
solidate  the  tattered  life  through  the  inauguration  of 
;i  new  kingdom  which  is  able  to  save  the  harassed 
soul.  But  in  that  which  they  offer  there  seems 
a  higher  and  a  lower,  a  right  and  a  wrong  inter- 
weaved,   and    they  do   succeed   in    finding   the   line  ol 

demarcation. 

[t  fares  similarly  with  the  effect  of  religions  upon 


882  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

the  life  and  actions  of  man  ;  these  bring  him  clearer 
aims  and  more  energetic  motives,  but  they  also 
readily  bring  contractions  and  coarseness.  Life, 
under  the  influence  of  positive  religion,  gains  a  strong 
consolidation;  a  province  of  truths  is  traced  out  and 
dismisses  all  doubt ;  men,  through  this,  are  brought 
into  greater  concord  and  are  called  to  mutual  assist- 
ance ;  the  direct  relation  to  the  Godhead  gives  a 
powerful  vigour  to  all  demands  and  an  increas- 
ing earnestness  to  life.  But  the  consolidation  turns 
readily  into  a  rigid  fixation,  and  the  reflection  turns 
into  a  narrow  exclusiveness.  How  often  have  re- 
ligions imagined  something  great  in  such  elements 
as  these,  and  how  often  have  they  rejected  every- 
thing that  lay  beyond  their  own  province  as  some- 
thing inferior,  indifferent,  and  even  dangerous  !  This 
attitude  does  not  limit  itself  to  particular  points,  but 
enters  into  the  whole.  The  direct  relationship  of  man 
to  man  aims  at  placing  in  the  foreground,  as  factors 
in  the  formation  of  life,  the  rendering  of  help  and  love 
in  mutual  intercourse  and  the  well-being  of  the 
human  province.  But  the  relationship  to  the  universe 
and  to  the  inward  expansion  of  one's  own  nature 
which  science,  art,  and  culture  strive  to  set  forth,  is 
but  little  thought  of.  Thus,  the  governing  life  easily 
becomes  subjective  and  merely  human,  and  this  soon 
turns  the  man  to  revolve  around  himself. 

But,  also,  within  man's  own  province,  that  which 
seems  first  of  all  a  pure  gain  may  readily  turn  into 
a  loss.  Historical  religion  binds  men  closer  together 
on  the  Godward  side  ;  it  creates  more  inward  fellow- 
ship, more  mutual  understanding,  more  uniformity 
of  the  soul.     But  such  can  hardly  happen  otherwise 


THE    HISTORICAL   RELIGIONS  383 

than  at  the  cost  of  free  movement  and  of  individu- 
ality. Each  religion  has  its  own  type  of  life,  and 
forces  this  upon  its  adherents  from  youth  upwards 
with  mild  or  strong  constraint.  Does  not  the  life 
through  this  become  bound  and  mechanised  ?  Does 
it  not  become  to  many  individuals,  who  bring  no  inner 
movement  against  it,  a  mere  clinging  to  the  external, 
and  does  it  not  threaten  to  become  a  gross  untruth- 
fulness— a  mere  conventional  participation  in  an 
imposed  order  ?  There  is  an  hypocrisy  which  reaches 
beyond  the  conscious  idea  into  the  recesses  of  the 
soul,  and  which  unites  itself  with  the  subjective  notion 
of  veracity ;  there  is  an  hypocrisy  of  the  nature  to 
which  nothing  more  easily  enters  than  religion.  This 
is  the  pharisaism  which  true  religious  natures  have  to 
fio-ht  against  with  the  whole  ardour  of  their  convic- 
tion  ;  and  the  sadness  is  that  such  hypocrisy  is  no 
transient  appearance  of  certain  times,  but  seems  to 
connect  itself  indissolubly  with  religion. 

Historical  religion  is  the  strongest  mainstay  of 
morality,  but,  at  the  same  time,  nowhere  else  do  such 
dangers  grow.  Historical  religion  consolidates  mor- 
ality through  a  linkage  of  it  to  a  Divine  Will,  and  it 
strengthens  the  energy  of  morality  through  the 
awakening  of  an  indestructible  belief  in  the  moral 
order  of  the  universe.  But,  at  the  same  time,  the 
founding  of  morality  upon  an  historical  religion  draws 
morality  into  great  insecurity,  and  it  clings  to  this 
insecurity;  the  moral  motives  are  threatened  with 
defacement,  for  the  winning  of  Divine  favour  becomes 
now  the  main  motive-power  of  action.  Thus,  a 
religions  morality,  through  its  orientation  of  thought 
towards  a"  beyond,"  readily  injures  a  joyous  labour  and 


-'384  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

creativeness  in  the  "  here  and  now" — since  with  its 
pictorial  ideas  of  future  expectations  and  confidence 
in  these,  it  may  support  a  passive  conduct ;  it  may 
repress  a  courageous  entrance  into  reality  and  ex- 
change it  for  a  mere  logical  and  judicious  kind  of 
reality  ;  it  disunites  and  estranges  human  nature ;  it 
produces  unutterable  bitterness,  to  which  it  binds  all 
the  qualities  of  the  moral  disposition  as  an  aid  to 
its  own  propaganda,  and  explains  everything  existing 
outside  its  own  circle  as  unreal  and  worthless.  Do 
all  these  questions  allow  themselves  to  be  placed  on 
one  side  as  an  outflow  of  mere  "  unbelief,"  or  as  a 
shallow  mode  of  thinking  ? 

All  these  problems,  however,  culminate  in  the  turn 
of  religion  to  the  Church.  The  Church  presented 
itself  as  indispensable  to  historical  religion,  for  only 
through  the  incorporation  of  religion  with  the  Church 
did  religion  gain  a  full  actuality  for  man ;  only  in 
connection  with  the  Church  did  religion  attain  a 
distinct  stamp  of  its  characteristic  features ;  only  in 
connection  with  the  Church  did  religion  work  for  the 
whole  of  humanity,  and  not  merely  for  specially 
selected  minds.  But,  at  the  same  time,  the  danger 
of  humanising  the  Divine  increases  most  powerfully 
through  the  conception  of  its  entrance  into  the 
province  of  man.  The  Church  is  not  able  to  exist 
without  a  human  and  temporal  element ;  indeed,  the 
more  it  develops  to  a  full  independence,  the  more  will 
it  bring  forth  the  claims  of  the  human  and  temporal 
elements  and  transfer  them  to  the  Divine  and 
Eternal ;  it  will  then  busy  itself  mechanically  with 
the  Divine,  and  probably  consider  quite  worldly 
men    as   being   religious    and    in    communion    with 


THE   HISTORICAL   RELIGIONS  385 

the  Divine.  An  inversion  of  the  most  deadly  kind 
threatens  the  Church ;  it  becomes  liable,  instead  of 
labouring  for  the  presence  of  the  Divine,  to  clothe  a 
certain  kind  of  the  human  with  a  semblance  of  the 
Divine,  and  to  confer  upon  this  humanity  the 
qualities  of  Divine  truth  and  glory ;  indeed,  the 
Church  is  able,  when  it  carries  such  a  procedure  to  its 
uttermost,  to  elevate  the  priesthood  above  the  Divine, 
and  to  attribute  to  it  alleged  power  beyond  that  of 
the  Godhead.  Then  the  Church  occupies  itself  with 
a  veneration  of  itself  and  not  of  the  Divine,  and  this 
becomes  a  mere  means  to  the  heightening  of  its  own 
glory.  However,  through  such  a  turn,  through  such 
a  wanton  exaggeration  of  the  human  to  the  level  of 
the  Divine,  the  Church  becomes  the  greatest  danger 
to,  as  well  as  the  greatest  enemy  of,  religion ;  for,  in 
fact,  not  hi  ng  has  injured  religion  so  much  as  the 
Church.  Hut,  at  the  same  time,  religion  did  not  seem 
able  to  obtain  for  itself  a  secure  foundation  and  its 
legitimate  effect  upon  men  without  a  development 
into  a  Church.  How,  then,  can  we  disengage  our- 
selves from  the  contradiction,  and  how  can  we  find  the 
line  of  demarcation  between  good  and  evil,  between 
a  genuine  elevation  of  man  through  the  Divine  and 
through  the  lowering  of  the  Divine  to  the  human  ?  1 1* 
such  a  line  of  demarcation  cannot  be  found,  then  a  grave 
doubt  is  bound  to  arise  in  the  whole  of  historical 
religions,  and  that  doubt  appears  strongesl  in  that  re- 
ligion which  bears  most  clearly  the  marks  of  historicity, 
i.e.  in  Christianity.  Docs  not  historical  religion  appear 
;is  something  which  of  necessity  must  destroy  itself 
through      its     own      development      and     excess,     and 

thus   reveals   itself  as  an   untenable  contradiction? 

25 


386  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

8.  Impossibility  of  a  simple  Denial  of 
Historical  Religion 

What  we  have  already  discussed  makes  it  con- 
ceivable that  historical  religions  became  a  target  for 
the  hardest  assaults,  and,  indeed,  this  did  not  happen 
only  from  the  pettiness  of  a  subjective  mode  of 
thought,  but  also  from  the  numerous  interests  of  the 
whole  provinces  of  life.  No  struggle  has  kindled 
more  passions  and  anger  than  this,  and  none  so 
strongly  has  so  pointedly  divided  men  from  one  an- 
other. In  earlier  times,  the  attack  was  wont  promptly 
to  issue  in  a  complete  denial  of  religion  ;  religion,  to 
such  times,  was  explained  as  a  mere  web  of  illusions  or 
even  as  a  product  of  conscious  fraud.  To-day,  the 
hazardous  character  of  such  a  sweeping  condemnation 
is  clearly  perceived.  In  any  case,  the  capacities, 
achievements,  and  sense  of  truth  of  mankind  fall  into 
entire  mistrust  if  the  most  powerful  energy  of  the 
historical  development  and  the  most  secure  anchorage 
of  peoples  and  times  were  to  sink  into  an  empty 
illusion.  There  is  not  a  more  deplorable  contradic- 
tion to  be  witnessed  than,  at  one  time,  to  praise  in  the 
highest  terms  the  greatness  of  human  reason,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  to  surrender  as  entire  error  all  that  is 
inmost  and  holiest  in  human  nature.  Only  to  an 
absolute  pessimism  can  such  a  turn  give  no  shock. 

Therefore,  one  seeks  to  avoid  this  conclusion,  and, 
in  order  to  do  this,  devises  a  mid-path  between  truth 
and  error.  It  is  now  declared  that  the  historical 
religions  were  not  merely  pictorial  illusions,  but  pro- 
ducts of  the  momentary  situations  of  peoples  and 
epochs ;  such  peoples  and  epochs  have,  in  their   re- 


THE    HISTORICAL   RELIGIONS  387 

ligions,  freed  themselves  from  such  situations,  and 
raised  themselves  beyond  them  through  the  aims  and 
ideals  which  were  imbedded  in  their  efforts.  Thus, 
religions,  in  the  form  of  union  of  ideals,  have  a  certain 
kind  of  reality,  and  have  undeniably  contributed 
towards  a  progressive  development  of  humanity. 
But  all  this  has  happened,  it  is  said,  only  within  the 
human  circle  and  for  human  ideas ;  life  itself  won 
nothing  which  it  had  not  previously  carried  within 
itself  and  from  which  it  was  able  to  develop.  Thus, 
the  great  problem  seems  smoothly  and  simply 
settled  :  religion  receives  a  right  to  be  approved  of, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  shows  that  what  are  exhibited 
as  differences  and  even  as  opposites  are  but  an  ex- 
pression of  the  characteristics  of  peoples  and  times. 
The  consequence  will  be  that  we  shall  have  to  do 
with  purely  relative  truths  which  do  not  exclude  one 
another  but  subsist  friendly  side  by  side. 

But,  in  spite  of  such  alleged  superiority,  this  solu- 
tion is  no  more  than  one  of  those  multi-coloured  com- 
promises through  whose  presence  the  edge  of  the 
opposites  is  blunted  and  the  energy  of  life  is  depreci- 
ated. The  deeper  conviction  of  religions  has  been  all 
along  to  introduce  man  to  something  superhuman  and 
to  shield  him  from  inner  destruction.  If  such  a  super- 
human did  not  at  all  originate,  man  intoxicated  him- 
self with  his  own  creations,  and  climbed  to  the  height 
of  his  own  subjective  notions;  thus  the  whole  of 
religion  appeared  to  him  as  a  self-deception  of  human 
nature  and  although  the  representatives  of  religion 
were  not  considered  to  he  conscious  deceivers,  \<l 
they  were  considered  to  be  "deceived  deceivers." 
In    fact,   such  a   view   alters   the   situation   hut  little. 


i5H8  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

so  that  the  same  answer  which  withstood  the  old 
sweeping  denial  must  meet  the  new  one.  Without 
a  doubt,  the  historical  religions  have  strongly  affected 
the  life  of  the  spirit  of  man ;  they  have  carried  it 
into  original  paths  and  have  brought  to  it  an  inward 
elevation.  They  have,  on  the  whole,  done  this  less 
directly  than  indirectly  through  a  transformation  of 
the  entire  life.  We  need  only  trace  back  a  little  the 
threads  of  creativeness  in  art  and  in  the  mental  con- 
structions regarding  the  universe,  in  morality  and  the 
formation  of  communities,  in  order  to  recognise 
everywhere  the  connection  of  all  this  with  the  effects 
and  sway  of  religion.  Therefore,  the  alleged  illusory 
character  of  religion  extends  itself  over  the  whole 
of  the  Spiritual  Life ;  and  if  we  follow  this  path,  it 
will  lead  us  to  the  same  conclusion  as  previously — to 
an  entire  bankruptcy  of  human  capacity  and  to  the 
extinction  of  any  hope  of  help  from  truth.  Out  of  the 
attempted  obscuring  of  the  problem  the  unmerciful 
Either-Or  steps  ever  forward.  Either  man  is  nothing 
more  than  mere  man — a  ready-made  kind  of  nature  by 
the  side  of  innumerable  other  similar  natures  ;  and 
then  certainly  religion  falls  to  the  ground,  but  at  the 
same  time  there  falls  each  and  every  truth — even 
scientific  truth, for  totruth  belongs  necessarily  a  validity 
beyond  human  opinion  and  vacillation,  Or  there  is 
implanted  in  man  more  than  an  isolated,  completed 
nature,  and  he  is  able  to  take  up  a  struggle  against  the 
petty-human  self;  and  then  religion  refuses  from  the 
very  outset  to  be  considered  as  a  mere  phantom,  and 
it  compels  us  to  seek  in  it  the  element  of  truth. 

If  an  unequivocal  condemnation  of  the  historical  re- 
ligions is  thus  prohibited,  and  if,  at  the  same  time,  we 


THE    HISTORICAL    RELIGIONS  389 

can  neither  recognise  different  truths  existing 
side  by  side  nor  consider  any  one  of  the  his- 
torical religions  as  absolute  truth  and  all  the 
others  as  entire  error,  one  possibility  remains  open : 
there  must  result  in  all  historical  religions  a 
common  further  inference  of  the  Spiritual  Life ;  a 
common  fundamental  fact  must  precede  all  the  rami- 
fications and  strife.  This  fundamental  fact  has  to 
be  set  forth  with  the  utmost  clearness,  and  from  it 
alone  we  must  undertake  a  critical  valuation  of  the 
particular  religions,  and  seek  to  differentiate  the  more- 
than-human  from  the  mere-human.  That  much  of 
the  petty-human  flows  into  religion  and  filters  into  a 
seeming  inseparableness  with  the  Divine  is  only  too 
evident ;  indeed,  it  is  this  that  constitutes  the  kernel 
of  the  problem  and  the  main  knot  of  the  matter,  that 
historical  religions  contain  too  much  that  is  merely 
human  to  be  valued  as  a  pure  work  of  God,  and 
yet  too  much  that  is  Spiritual  and  Divine  to  be  con- 
sidered as  a  mere  product  of  man. 

Thus,  in  connection  with  the  historical  religions, 
we  conic  back  to  the  same  question  with  which  we 
opened  this  section  of  our  investigation— the  question 
whether,  within  our  life-province,  some  kind  of  a 
further  development  of  Spiritual  Reality  culminates 
beyond  the  hitherto-explained  situation,  and  whether 
the  manifestation  of  a  further  cosmic  depth  results. 
The  course  ofour  investigation  docs  nol  allow  such 

a    possibility    to    be    rejected     ;is   ;i    matter    of  course. 

For  we  have  already  seen  a  spirituality  superior  to 
the  world  dawning  within  our  existence,  but  such 
a  spirituality   developed  itself  entirely    through  our 

work    in     the   world,    and    remained    united    with    the 


890  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

advancement  of  this  work.  And  on  account  of  this 
we  have  witnessed  the  growth  of  inexpressible  en- 
tanglements. Now,  could  not  a  spirituality  superior 
to  the  world  make  its  appearance  in  relation  to  man 
without  the  intervention  of  the  world?  If  this  were 
possible,  we  might  expect  a  new  kind  of  life,  new 
spiritual  contents  and  values,  an  entire  turn  of  our 
position,  and,  through  all  this,  some  kind  of  conquest 
over  hitherto  all-powerful  oppositions. 

In  the  meantime,  this  is  no  more  than  a  possibility  ; 
whether  a  reality  corresponds  to  such  a  possibility, 
only  further  experiences  can  decide,  and  to  these  we 
now  turn.  15ut  it  is  important  to  know  that  the 
investigation  even  at  our  present  stage  is  not  mean- 
ingless, and  is  in  some  degree  able  to  show  the  drift  of 
the  path  we  have  to  pursue. 


PART  IV.— CHARACTERISTIC  RELIGION 

(Continued) 

CHAPTER  XII 

b.  Signs  of  a  New  Depth  of  Life 

We  cannot,  according  to  the  whole  course  of  our 
investigation,  offer  or  expect  a  further  depth  of  reality 
from  any  external  existence ;  we  can  search  for  such 
a  depth  nowhere  else  than  in  the  Life-process  itself; 
we  have  to  work  out  this  depth,  and  from  this  point 
to  secure  a  connection  with  a  new  order  of  things. 
It  is  nowhere  more  necessary  than  at  this  point  to 
avoid  the  mistake  of  a  deep-rooted  intellectualism 
which  first  of  all  constructs  a  world  beyond  man  and 
from  thence  supplies  his  life  with  a  content,  instead 
of  taking  possession  of  such  a  world  and  grasping- 
it  into  a  Whole  in  order  then  to  hazard  convictions 
of  the  All. 

However,  the  new  sought-for  depth  of  life  will  not 
probably  appear  in  front  of  us  immediately  as  a 
Whole,  but,  in  the  first  place,  it  appears  in  particular 
manifestations.  Hut  these  manifestations  are  :ible, 
however,  to  lead  further  if  they  reveal  themselves  on 
closer  inspection   ;is   portions  of  a   Larger  connection. 

and  if,  in  such  an  investigation,  further  avenues  open 
out  until  at  last  ;i  //err  world  dawns  in  front  ot  us. 

391 


392  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

Therefore,  we  seek  before  all  else  to  win  some  kind 
of  tangible  point  of  departure  whose  original  nature 
announces  a  new  order  of  things ;  we  seek  then  to 
gain,  through  a  gradual  ascent,  more  and  more  com- 
prehensive values  and  at  last  a  total-life. 

1.   The  Idea  of  Love  of  Eneviji 

As  a  point  of  departure,  we  are  helped  by  the  fact 
that  upon  a  certain  height  of  historical  life,  the 
thought  and  demand  of  love  of  enemy  appear  not 
only  in  Christianity  but  also  in  other  religions,  and, 
beyond  all  religions,  the  fact  has  appeared  as  a  general 
atmosphere  of  life.  Love  of  enemy  seems  here  as 
the  summit  of  ethical  conduct  and  as  the  most  certain 
sign  of  its  completion.  Whilst,  however,  love  of 
enemy  was  ardently  praised,  and  the  infinite  aim 
seemed  to  raise  man  beyond  himself,  the  question 
usually  remained  unasked  whether  the  exalted  virtue 
was  possible  within  the  given  situation  of  man, 
whether  the  effort  for  the  virtue  aspired  after  inter- 
twining transformations  in  the  whole  of  our  life 
and  being.  This  question  may  be  lightly  put  aside 
if  the  two  dispositions  of  the  soul  which  we  meet 
in  love  of  enemy  is  taken  up  in  a  faint  and  slurring 
kind  of  way  so  that  no  earnest  conflict  originates. 
At  the  point,  however,  where  the  claims  of  love  of 
enemy  break  forth,  tilings  relate  themselves  other- 
wise :  here  an  entire  turn — a  transformation  of  the 
prior  situation — is  discovered.  Enmity  is  no  fleeting 
ill-humour,  but  an  antagonism  of  the  deepest  character 
and  of  the  whole  mode  of  thinking  ;  it  is  an  encounter 
from  an  objective  necessity,  since  our  highly  valued 
goods    are    seized,  reviled,   and    injured    by  another. 


SIGNS   OF   A    NEW   DEPTH    OF   LIFE  393 

And  love,  however,  is  not  that  faint-hearted  disposi- 
tion which  begrudges  to  another  his  existence  and 
which  allows  all  blessings  to  fall  on  itself,  but  is  an 
active  and  positive  demeanour,  a  strong  joy  in  the 
being  of  another,  a  furthering  and  a  raising  of  its  own 
life  through  the  communion  established  with  the  other. 
If  things  are  so,  is  there  not  an  irreconcilable  opposi- 
tion between  love  and  enmity,  and  is  it  not  an 
absurdity  to  will  at  the  same  time  to  hate  truly  and 
to  love  truly  ? 

Indeed,  the  question  lies  here  so  near — whether 
an  enfeeblement  and  slackening  of  the  strife  is  de- 
sirable for  man.  It  behoves  us,  first  of  all,  to  bring- 
forth  and  to  carry  forward  a  Spiritual  Reality  over 
against  a  hostile  or  indifferent  world.  In  order  to 
accomplish  this,  the  greatest  tension  of  energy  and 
an  untiring  struggle  are  needful ;  as  this  struggle 
labours  for  the  possession  of  the  highest  good,  it 
demands  the  whole  soul  of  man — the  entire  strength 
of  his  affections,  the  full  glow  of  his  feelings.  Plato 
had  good  reason  for  desiring  a  "  noble  passion " 
for  the  success  of  the  work  of  life.  Now,  does  not 
the  command  to  love  our  enemies  threaten  to  weaken 
the  earnestness  of  the  matter,  to  handle  good  and  evil 
as  equally  valid,  and  to  concede  willingly  the  right 
of  the  field  of  conflict  to  unreason  \  Thus,  unmanly 
cowardly  compliance  and  a  sentimental  weakness  are 
elevated  ;is  highesl  virtues,  or  the  character  remains 
;i  lucre  semblance  and  under  the  mantle  of  love  such 
a  passion  and  hate  grow  luxuriantly,  as  witnessed  so 
often  in  religious  strife.  A  depression  of  the  energy 
indispensable  in  the  struggle  against  evil  has,  from 
the  beginning,  been  made  a  matter  of  reproach  ;i^;unsl 


894  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

Christianity.  Tims,  we  find  Plotinus  with  this  re- 
flection concerning  the  matter :  "  If  we  do  not 
struggle,  evil  men  will  triumph."  Should  such 
weakening  of  man,  so  often  witnessed  in  the 
history  of  Christianity,  be  the  final  word  of  Chris- 
tianity ?  In  any  case,  it  was  not  the  final  word  of 
Jesus  when  He  delivered  the  mighty  discourse 
against  the  Pharisees,  and  when  He  drove  the 
money-changers  out  of  the  Temple. 

But  how  does  it  stand,  then,  with  love  for  enemy  ? 
Is  it  really  no  more  than  a  deceitful  semblance — a 
phantom  of  an  overstrained  disposition — and  must  we 
conclude  in  connection  with  it  that  a  friend  is  a  friend 
and  an  enemy  is  an  enemy,  and  that  we  are  indebted 
to  justice  for  telling  us  the  latter,  and  that  we  should 
preserve  our  love  for  friends  alone  ?  It  was  thought 
thus  at  the  zenith  of  Hellenic  thought,  and  so, 
too,  Confucius  taught  consciously  and  emphatically. 
"  Someone  asked,  what  shall  one  think  of  him  who  re- 
pays injury  with  kindness  ?  The  philosopher  replied  : 
If  one  so  acts,  with  what  can  kindness  be  repaid  ? 
One  must  repay  hate  and  injury  through  justice,  and 
kindnessthrough  kindness."  That  is  a  clear  andhonest 
mode  of  thinking  which  corresponds  to  the  natural 
feelings  of  man.  But  it  imposes  limits  on  human  life 
which  the  revolutionary  experiences  of  the  inmost 
soul  have  to  burst  asunder.  wSuch  a  conclusion 
suffices  only  if,  and  upon  the  whole,  a  ready-made 
world  surrounds  us,  if  we  develop  ourselves  in  its 
railed-in  province,  and  if  there  is  nothing  essential 
to  be  transformed  or  renewed.  But  such  a  con- 
culsion  becomes  an  intolerable  narrowness  when 
the  prior   situation  contains  difficult  entanglements, 


SIGNS   OF   A   NEW   DEPTH    OF   LIFE  395 

and    when    only   a    fundamental   renewal    can   give 
a    value    to    our   life    and    action.     If   such    a   new 
order    of   tilings    makes   its   appearance,    everything 
which  divides  and  estranges  us  is  able  to  pass  away ; 
and  out  of  a  new  foundation  a  new  fellowship  of  life 
can  be  built  which  now  binds  the  minds  that  other- 
wise strove  against  one  another,  so  that  we  are  raised 
above  all  strife,    although    many  opposite   points   of 
view  cannot  be  relinquished.     That  which  otherwise 
is  impossible  now  becomes  possible  through  a  funda- 
mental renewal  of  life — through  the  appearance  of  a 
depth  which  relegates  the  whole  prior  life,  with  all  its 
struggles,  to  a  mere  superficiality.     If,  herewith,  the 
demands  of  love  for  enemy  emerge  from  and  rest  upon 
genuine   love  and  not  upon  mere  pity,  the  hope  of 
a  new  order  of  things  lies  close  to  this  foundation, 
and  a  yearning  of  human  nature  for  an  emancipation 
from  the  bounds  and  barriers  of  the  "given"  world 
takes  place.      Does  not  then  the  joy  itself  build  such 
a   hope,  and    does  not  the  strength  of  the  yearning 
itself  constitute  a  testimony  that    here   the   matter 
does  not  deal  with  a  mere  phantom  but  with  a  new 
life  within  the  domain  of  man  \ 

2.  The  Deepening  of  Love 
The  problem  of  love  for  enemy  is  only  a  section  of 
a  more  genera]  problem— of  the  problem  whether  the 
direction  of  our  life,  in  the  last  resort,  belongs  to  justice 
or  to  love.  There  was  good  reason  for  the  old  Greek 
thinkers  lor  siding  with  justice— with  justice  in  the 
broad  sense  of  an  arrangement  of  all  relationships  ac- 
cording to  merit.     Each  receives  what  falls  to  his  share, 

no  less,  but  also  no  more;  even  love  has  thus  to  be 


896  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

measured  according  to  the  degree  of  presented  love, 
and  all  unmerit  and  all  non-limits  are  excluded.  Such 
an  ideal  calls  for  the  utmost  exertion,  for  the  trans- 
position of  all  capacity  into  efficient  activity,  and  for 
the  construction  of  an  organised  kingdom  of  reason. 
Such  a  system  of  justice  had  also  place  for  mercy  in 
so  far  as  the  hardness  of  a  literal  measurement  was 
toned  down,  and  in  so  far  as  the  over-tension  of  right 
was  held  to  become  an  injury  (summum  jus  summa 
injuria).  The  idea  of  justice  has,  first  and  foremost, 
brought  forth  and  developed  a  connected  spiritual 
order,  and  it  is  and  remains  indispensable  for  the 
vindication  of  such  an  order. 

How  does  it  happen,  then,  that  in  spite  of  such 
a  great  achievement  justice  has  not  satisfied  man  ? 
How  is  it  that  the  movement  of  universal  history  has 
left  that  ideal  of  justice  behind  itself  ?  The  answer 
is :  that  such  an  ideal  of  justice  has  been  left  behind 
through  the  painful  experience  and  feeling  of  the 
inadequacy  of  man  as  mere  man,  and  through  a 
knowledge  of  a  deep  disorder  in  his  own  nature. 
Such  experience  and  knowledge,  however,  became  an 
urgent  need  as  soon  as  man  did  not  continue  within 
a  "  given  "  world,  but  raised  himself  beyond  all  earthly 
connections  to  infinity ;  and  as  soon  as  he  measured 
himself  not  with  his  equals  but  with  the  ideal  of  an 
absolute  perfection.  The  growing  depth  of  life,  with 
its  discovery  of  infinity  in  man's  own  nature,  demands 
him  to  measure  himself  in  this  manner.  His  life  does 
not  exhaust  itself  with  the  solution  of  this  or  that 
problem,  and  does  not  content  itself  with  the  attain- 
ment of  some  kind  of  elevation,  but  it  drives  him  from 
within  towards  the  domain  of  the  Whole ;  he  is  now 


SIGNS   OF   A    NEW    DEPTH   OF   LIFE  397 

after  absolute  perfection,  and,  before  all  else,  after  a 
perfection  of  a  comprehensive  life  and  conduct  in  the 
Whole.  The  presence  of  such  a  goal  brings  to  clear- 
ness the  entire  inadequacy  and  even  the  hopelessness 
of  his  actual  performances  and  situation.  Along  with 
this,  the  standard  of  justice  becomes  an  intolerable 
hardness,  and  the  valuation  of  the  ordinary  perform- 
ances threatens  the  man  with  entire  rejection  and 
ruin.  On  account  of  this,  man  defends  himself 
through  energies  which  have  in  no  way  originated  out 
of  his  egotistic  desires  of  life,  but  rather  he  feels 
himself  convinced  of  a  greater  depth  and,  along  with 
this,  of  a  priceless  value;  but  he  cannot  call  into  life 
such  depth  and  value  from  his  own  energy,  and, 
therefore,  he  depends  on  redemption  and  love  for  the 
realisation  of  his  own  nature.  Thus,  there  grows  a 
burning  desire  after  Infinite  Love  on  the  other  side  of 
all  questions  of  merit,  and  after  a  new  order  of  things 
beyond  all  calculation  and  measurement. 

Is  such  a  longing  a  superfluous  fancy,  and  could 
it  arise  and  gain  such  power  if  some  kind  of  reality 
did  not  stand  behind  it  ?  Also,  the  relationship  of 
man  to  man  would  become  cold  and  soulless  if  all 
unmerited  and  unmeasured  love  were  removed  from 
his  soul.  Hut  how  mysterious  is  such  love  !  How 
could  it  ever  have  originated  out  of  the  selfishness 
and  impurity  of  the  ordinary  impulses  of  man? 
Man  has  to  be  raised  out  of  such  a  situation  and  set, 
from  within,  in  other  connections:  an  energy  out  of 
the  Whole  must  become  his  an  energy  which  lifts 
him  beyond  the  initial  stage  and,  indeed,  beyond  his 
natural  capacity,  and  which,  issuing  ou1  of  a  new  life, 
brings  the  seemingly  impossible  io  fruition.     This  is 


.'398  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

especially  clear  in  connection  with  the  great  person- 
alities whom  human  life  has  to  thank  for  an  inner 
elevation,  and  especially  in  connection  with  the  heroes 
of  religion.  The  external  situation  of  life  left  them 
forsaken,  and  the  circumstances  of  life  carried  them 
but  little  love,  yet  these  men  were  too  clear  of  vision 
to  disguise  the  true  position  of  things  through  mere 
phrases  about  the  greatness  and  progressive  develop- 
ment of  mankind.  Thus,  they  have  often  within 
human  circles  felt  themselves  so  lonely,  as  the  yearning 
and  fervour  with  which  they  fled  to  the  Godhead 
reveals.  Mahomet  did  not  belong  to  the  deepest 
spirits,  but  even  he  brought  that  feeling  to  a  tender 
expression.  "  In  the  glare  of  noonday  and  in  the 
stillness  of  the  night  the  Lord  casts  him  not  away, 
and  the  future  will  be  better  than  the  past.  Did 
He  not  find  him  an  orphan  and  has  given  him  a 
place  in  His  home  ?  Did  He  not  find  him  astray 
and  has  led  him  to  the  right  road  ?  Did  He  not 
find  him  so  poor  and  has  made  him  so  rich  ? " 
But  has  such  a  loneliness  of  these  leading  spirits 
amongst  men  destroyed  their  love  to  man  ?  Has 
not  a  mighty  power  of  love  kindled  itself  in  the 
midst  of  all  opposition — a  fire  that  enveloped  also 
drowsy  souls  and  became  the  illuminating  energy 
for  the  welfare  of  mankind  ?  Thus,  these  men  were 
able  to  see  more  in  man  than  lies  on  the  sur- 
face ;  they  were  able  to  penetrate  through  all  mean- 
ness and  failure  to  a  depth  of  the  nature  which 
unites  the  seemingly  severed  and  which  invests  the 
seemingly  worthless  with  a  value.  But  could  such  a 
depth  be  possible  without  a  new  order  of  things — 
without  the  presence  of  an  All-Life   in  the  human 


SIGNS   OF   A   NEW   DEPTH    OF   LIFE  399 

soul  ?  As  these  men  were  obliged  to  view  humanity 
in  the  light  of  the  new  order  of  things  in  order 
to  work  as  they  did,  it  would  have  been  diffi- 
cult for  them  to  find,  without  the  energy  of  that 
All- Life  and  without  an  ascent  beyond  themselves, 
the  stability,  the  joy,  and  the  inexhaustibleness 
which  their  work  aspired  after  and  to  which  their 
success  testified. 

It  has  happened  thus  on  the  summits  of  historical 
life,  but  it  did  not  remain  confined  to  these  summits. 
Our  life  would  lose  its  deepest  soul  were  it  a  mere 
system  of  effects  and  counter-effects  ;  we  should  have 
to  measure  all  actions  according  to  what  should  issue 
in  the  form    of  a   result  which    corresponds  to   the 
thought   of  justice.      Our  life,  as  Goethe  has  often 
expressed    it   in    a   wonderful    manner,    would    soon 
slacken  and  stagnate   unless  it  contained    much   ac- 
tivity which  expected  no   gratitude  and  much    love 
which    claimed    no    reciprocal  love.      Such  a   love- 
selfless  and  strong  at  the  same  time — may  show  itself 
in    unpretentious    achievements   and    may    raise   the 
inner  worth  of  life  beyond  all  the  exploits  of  uni- 
versal history.      In  such  daily  occurrences — seemingly 
trivial — a  mystery  is  imbedded  and  a  marvel  happens  ; 
what  happens  contradicts  not  only  the  order  of  nature 
but  also   I  lie  order  of  the  natural    life:    in   so   far   as 
what  happens  follows  justice,  it  hangs  in  the  air  and 
cannot  find  a  foundation   until  a  new  order  of  things 
— a  kingdom   of  creative  love— carries  and   animates 
it.      To  acknowledge  such   a    superiority  of  love  does 
not  mean  tli.it    just  ice  is  to    be   attacked  and  banished 
out  of  the  world,  for  justice  is   ever  needed  in  human 
relationships  for  the  growth  of  reason  oxer  the  whole 


400  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

expanse  of  life,  and  for  the  consolidation  of  mental 
and  moral  things  over  against  bare  nature.  Hut  a 
mere  acknowledgment  of  a  kingdom  of  love  does 
not  establish  its  order  in  the  whole  of  our  inner 
world ;  for  it  is  not  only  through  hope  but  also 
through  its  own  effective  presence  that  love  is  able 
to  strike  its  roots  into  our  life  and  alter  the  whole 
mode  of  life,  and,  at  the  same  time,  further  the  ac- 
knowledgment of  a  new  depth  of  reality. 

3.  Self-Maintenance  in  the  Midst  of  Hindrance 

and  Suffering 

Our  earlier  consideration  of  this  subject  has  shown 
us  that  in  the  acknowledgment  of  an  independent 
spirituality,  life  presents  itself  not  as  a  calm  ascent 
but  as  a  hard  struggle.  With  the  appearance  of 
spirituality  there  appeared  something  essentially  new, 
which  has  to  forge  its  way  over  against  an  existing 
world  ;  collisions  are  bound  to  take  place,  and  hind- 
rances and  deadlocks  are  to  be  expected.  But  at 
first  hope  and  conviction  in  all  this  endured  and 
believed  that  the  Spiritual  life,  carried  as  it  is  by  an 
Absolute  Life,  would  emerge  victoriously  from  the 
struggle,  and  that  the  hindrance,  through  the  stimu- 
lated energy  of  such  hope  and  conviction,  would 
finally  work  towards  an  advancement.  Now,  we 
have  witnessed  the  opposition  gaining  such  strength 
and  extension  within  our  circle  that  the  whole  life 
is  endangered,  and  the  hope  of  a  conquest  within 
our  domain  breaks  in  pieces.  Our  effort  everywhere 
clashes  with  stubborn  barriers  which  it  dare  not 
conform  to  without  becoming  aimless  and  meaning- 
less.    What  does  the  experience  of  mankind   point 


SIGNS   OF   A   NEW   DEPTH   OF   LIFE  401 

out  here  ?  It  shows  us  that,  amidst  such  painful 
hindrances  and  amidst  an  eclipse  of  hope  of  any 
success,  the  Spiritual  Life  can  be  maintained  and  has 
been  maintained  by  individuals  as  well  as  by  mankind 
at  large.  Our  scientific  investigations  collide  with 
insurmountable  obstacles ;  we  discover  with  pain  our 
inability  to  wrestle  with  the  dark  mysteries  of  existence. 
In  the  wrestling  for  a  genuine  Art  we  find  ourselves  far 
too  weak  to  give  adequate  form  to  what  occurs  in  the 
deepest  recesses  of  our  soul,  to  what  thirsts  after  an 
embodiment,  and  we  fail  to  aid  it  towards  its  longed- 
for  reality.  Thus,  we  remain  incomplete,  and,  in- 
deed, remain  tattered  and  torn  in  our  existence — in- 
sufficient for,  and  locked-out  from,  ourselves.  Must 
we  not  become  convinced  of  the  impossibility  of  an 
essential  betterment  of  the  human  situation,  when 
we  view  the  effects  of  experience  of  millenniums,  and 
do  we  not  see  the  goal  recede  ever  in  front  of  us  ? 
And  must  not  the  individual,  the  more  he  stands 
upon  an  inner  connection  of  his  life,  recognise  life  as 
a  mere  torso?  It  is  easily  conceivable  that  human 
nature,  under  such  a  hard  and  harsh  Nay,  should  lose 
all  the  courage  of  life  and  should  relinquish  all  ac- 
tivity. In  reality  human  nature  has  not  done  this. 
True,  certain  views  of  the  universe  and  of  religion 
seek  an  entire  negation,  but  this  negation,  even  if  it 
did  not  carry  within  itself  a  prior  affirmation,  soon 
again  turns  to  affirmation.  Buddhism  lias  toned 
down  the  cntiic  negation  of  its  initial  singes,  and  has 
transformed  itself  into  some  kind  of  affirmation. 
Was  this  due  to   a  mere  stubbornness   of  the   natural 

Impulse,  to  an  ineradicable  quality  of  the  common 

gvtii]  of  life?     Hardly,  for  the  affirmation  itself  has, 

26 


402  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

in  the  form  of  spiritual  self-preservation,  brought 
forth  so  much  labour  and  sorrow  upon  humanity 
that  it  would  recommend,  rather  than  a  satisfaction 
in  the  bare  natural  desire  for  happiness,  a  calm 
submersion  and  dissolution  of  its  own  existence. 
Further,  the  affirmation  has  brought  forth  far 
too  much  spiritual  movement  and  newness  of  life 
to  allow  itself  to  be  swept  on  one  side  as  a  mere 
illusion.  Therefore,  there  must  be  present  in  such 
a  need  of  the  life  of  man  something  deeper ;  for  man, 
through  some  kind  of  energy,  will  hold  fast  to  his 
life  and  fill  it  with  a  confident  hope  and  trust,  although 
these  cannot  be  justified  by  any  nearest-at-hand  view 
of  things. 

No  great  thinker  has  more  truly  experienced  these 
problems  and  brought  them  more  powerfully  to  ex- 
pression than  Augustine.  Before  his  eyes  the  old 
world  sank  before  a  new  one  had  yet  emerged  ;  he 
found  himself  haunted  by  the  phantom  of  an  entire 
void,  and  felt  all  the  havoc  and  barriers  of  human 
existence  with  the  most  painful  intensity.  And  yet 
he  held  fast  to  life  and  withstood  the  total  destruction 
of  his  soul.  But  why  ?  Because  the  hindrance  itself 
brought  him  to  the  consciousness  that  something 
greater  than  it  is  imbedded  in  it ;  because  all  menace 
and  intimidation  made  him  absolutely  certain  of  some- 
thing in  his  nature  which  can  never  be  lost.  This 
something  is  something  axiomatic — something,  first 
of  all,  mysterious,  but  out  of  the  mystery  a  powerful 
energy  originates  and  gives  birth  to  a  new  and  higher 
need  of  life  which,  over  against  the  energy  of  nature, 
may  be  termed  metaphysical.  Whence  all  this  if 
life  had  exhausted  itself  with  the  hitherto-prevailing 


SIGNS   OF   A   NEW   DEPTH    OF   LIFE  403 

situation,  and  was  not  able  to  bring  forth  a  further 
depth  for  the  strengthening  and  renewal  of  man? 
The  experience  of  Augustine  is  not  singular,  but  is 
an  experience  of  mankind,  an  experience  of  all  indi- 
viduals to  whom  these  problems  come  to  signify  their 
own  destiny.  It  was  not  the  most  troubled  times 
and  experiences  that  allowed  doubt  to  penetrate  into 
the  whole  of  life,  but  such  a  catastrophe  has  happened 
far  more  in  times  of  idle  super-abundant  plenty  and 
of  an  absence  of  great  tasks.  The  former  hard  times 
have  rather  worked  in  the  direction  of  strengthening 
and  energising  human  nature.  But  how  could  they 
do  this  without  the  hope  and  even  the  certainty  of  a 
new  order  of  things — an  order  in  direct  contradiction 
to  all  that  life  had  hitherto  brought  to  them  ? 

4.  The  Progressive  Development  of  Inwardness 
According  to  our  explanation,  it  was  essentially 
necessary  for  the  Spiritual  Life  to  raise  the  inner  life 
to  an  independence,  to  extend  it  to  a  world  which 
does  not  merely  stand  by  the  side  of  other  things,  but 
which  takes  the  things,  in  the  whole  of  their  exist- 
ence, up  to  itself,  and  which  reveals  to  tilings  their 
own  nature.  The  development  of  the  Spiritual  Life 
becomes  through  this  a  progressive  inwardness  of 
existence.  But  we  have  already  observed  how  this 
inwardness  in  all  its  toil  clashes  with  most  painful 
oppositions,  so  that  a  danger  is  here  evident,  VIZ.  that 
what  we  attain  as  inwardness  may  be  looked  upon  as 
an  enclosed  circle  by  the  side  of  the  great    world,  and 

that  it  may  finally  resolve  itself  into  bare  subjectivity. 

But     mankind     has    in    no    manner    surrendered     it- 
self to   such   a  disintegration;   it    has  ever  sought    to 


404  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

shape  the  inwardness  anew  ;  it  has  sought  to  lay  such 
inwardness  deeper  in  the  nature  and  to  give  it  a  new 
foundation  and  a  new  content.  And  to  it  such  effort 
seemed  to  be  more  than  a  mere  aberration  of  judg- 
ment. At  least,  we  often  witness  new  movements 
issuing  forth  from  the  hindrances  themselves.  We 
get  roughly  thrown  back  by  the  objects  around  us 
upon  ourselves,  and  we  discover  with  pain  stubborn 
obstacles.  But  what  we  witness  and  experience  in  all 
this  becomes  the  point  of  departure  of  a  new  kind  of 
life ;  the  hindrance  engenders  not  only  a  sentimental 
echo  and  a  timid  reflection,  but  it  gets  taken  up 
into  a  wider,  deeper,  and  more  basal  life ;  it  serves 
towards  a  further  development  of  the  soul  in  regard 
to  all  the  work  of  the  world.  Thus,  an  inwardness 
seems  to  constitute  itself  here,  which  rests  purely 
within  itself — an  inwardness  which  transforms  into 
a  gain  what  was  previously  a  sheer  detriment  for 
work. 

The  acknowledgment  of  such  unalloyed  inwardness 
must  change  in  an  essential  manner  the  aspect  of  life  : 
what  seemed  hitherto  to  be  the  whole  of  our  world 
becomes  now  a  mere  segment  of  it  and  appears  in 
comparison  with  the  inwardness  as  something  external ; 
what  hitherto  appeared  as  the  total  range  of  our 
soul  now  acknowledges  a  depth  beyond  itself.  Man 
will  be  the  readier  to  acknowledge  this  depth  be- 
cause he  sees  through  the  prior  hemmed-in  life  as 
inadequate,  and  because  he  feels  his  own  previous 
mode  of  viewing  things  as  a  stubborn  destiny 
from  which  he  wants  somehow  to  free  himself. 
Rut  how  is  such  pure  inwardness,  which  brings  such 
great  changes  and  awakens  such  great  hopes,  itself  to 


SIGNS   OF   A    NEW   DEPTH    OF   LIFE  405 

be  explained  ?  How  can  such  inwardness  be  possible 
unless  our  life  had  won  further  connections  than  before, 
and  through  this  had  drawn  a  new  content  ?  All 
this  can  hardly  happen  without  a  further  manifesta- 
tion of  the  Whole  of  Reality. 

5.    The  Further  Development  of  Morality 

The  further  inner  development  of  life  which 
occupies  here  our  attention  is  nowhere  more  visible 
than  in  the  problem  of  morality.  Wherever  we  have 
had  to  deal  with  the  problem  in  the  course  of  our 
investigation,  morality,  in  our  view,  had  not  separated 
itself  from  the  whole  of  life  and  had  not  condensed 
itself  into  a  province  of  its  own.  Morality  has  not 
merely  a  special  task  of  its  own,  but  it  extends  over  all 
Spiritual  Life,  since  all  along  it  does  not  surround 
man  as  a  natural  inheritance  but  governs  him  through 
his  own  decision  and  appropriation.  We  must  un- 
conditionally cling  to  such  a  universality  of  morality  ; 
in  particular  the  practical  social  domain  -the  domain 
of  human  intercourse — has  no  right  to  claim  the 
moral  disposition  for  itself  alone,  and  to  exclude  from 
it,  say,  art  and  science.  The  antithesis  extends  over 
the  whole  of  life,  whether  the  action  is  governed  by 
the  necessities  of*  the  Spiritual  Life  itself,  or  by  the 
interests  of  the  individual  ;  whether  the  disposition 
is  that  of  tin-  individual  who  follows  after  truth  and 
is  affected  by  no  kind  of  motive  such  as  pleasure, 
gain,  and  renown,  or  is  that  of  the  artist  who 
reflects  in  his  soul  how  to  bring  an  unborn  form 
to  expression  a  form  as  morally  valuable  as  the 
practical  conduct  which  stands  in  the  service  of 
humanity.      Understood  thus,  morality  develops  itself 


W6  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

all  the  happier  the  less  it  becomes  an  isolated  province 
separated  from  all  other  tasks. 

But  morality  experiences  oppositions  and  entangle- 
ments similar  to  those  found  in  religion.  That  full 
devotion  to  the  Spiritual  Life  is  not  entirely  wanting 
in  morality,  yet  it  acquires  but  little  strength,  and 
the  entanglements  often  cripple  spiritual  work  as 
well  as  the  character ;  and,  also,  the  most  brilliant 
results  of  work  do  not  guarantee  a  corresponding- 
disposition,  for  natural  impulses  penetrate  deeply 
into  the  very  province  which  intended  to  lead 
man  beyond  nature,  and  the  petty-human  holds  the 
soul  in  its  powerful  grip.  Thus,  in  the  ordinary 
surface-life,  morality  has  but  little  power,  and  it  is 
considered  as  a  quite  subsidiary  matter.  Indeed, 
it  is  often  considered  an  irksome  and  obtrusive  dis- 
order— an  attempt  at  an  unwarranted  limitation. 
But  human  nature  as  a  whole  has  not  rested  on  such 
a  denial ;  it  has  ever  returned  to  an  appreciation  of 
morality,  and  well  it  might,  because  in  its  abandon- 
ment of  morality  it  had  followed  a  track  which  led 
to  an  unbearable  loss  in  depth  and  energy  of  life.  In 
such  upheavals  of  life,  morality  has  carried  itself  above 
the  initial  formation  of  things,  and  has  even  attained 
a  special  province  over  against  the  former  life. 
Morality,  through  the  cultivation  of  pure  inwardness 
over  against  the  work  of  the  world,  gains  a  new 
task — the  task  of  preserving  unconditionally  such 
inwardness  and,  along  with  it,  the  kernel  of  the  life 
of  the  soul,  and  heroically  and  faithfully  to  preserve, 
a  "soul  of  the  soul"  over  against  immense  opposition. 
Life,  through  this,  seems  for  the  first  time  to  reach 
its  deepest  root,  and  what  occurs  here  is  immeasur- 


SIGNS   OF    A   NEW    DEPTH    OF   LIFE  407 

ably  superior  to  all  other  work.  Christianity  espe- 
cially upheld  such  a  conviction;  we  find  this  in  such 
appropriate  words  as  that  "the  gain  of  the  whole 
world  can  not  counterbalance  the  loss  of  the  soul, 
and  that  with  the  price  of  the  whole  world  not  one 
soul  can  be  purchased  "(Luther).  So  that  in  the  case 
of  collision  with  other  aims  there  cannot  be  the 
slightest  doubt  that  the  autonomous  moral  task  pre- 
cedes unconditionally  all  other  tasks  ;  "  the  eye  is  to 
be  plucked  out  and  the  hand  is  to  be  cut  off'  if  they 
endanger  the  salvation  of  the  soul.  Hand  in  hand 
with  such  a  high  estimation  goes  a  greater  rigour  of  the 
demands  of  life.  The  preservation  of  that  depth  of 
the  nature  applies  not  to  practice  alone,  but  it  grips 
the  whole  province  of  the  Spiritual  Life  and  there 
starts  a  struggle  with  "  the  life  at  ease."  Thus,  that 
which  had  a  right  in  the  particular  situation  must 
now  rest  in  the  Whole,  and  it  is  on  account  of 
this  that  a  counter-effect  is  bound  to  arise.  It 
is  in  this  connection  that  conceptions  such  as 
responsibility,  guilt,  conscience,  arise — conceptions 
of  a  most  mysterious  character — but  in  spite  of 
all  their  darkness  they  are  powers  which  defy  dis- 
paragement and  rejection  and  ever  resurrect  them- 
selves; they  are  powers,  once  they  dawn  with  I  heir 
full  energy,  which  bring  the  whole  of  life  under 
their  sway  :  they  obviously  withstand  being  driven 
out  of  the  world  of  man  because  the  maintenance  of  a 
spiritual  self-reliance  and  the  possibility  of  a  spiritual 
self-preservation  are  indissolubly  linked  with  them. 
It  is  easily  possible  to  show  that,  human  life,  despite 
its  most,  brilliant  achievements— as,  for  instance,  in 
the  period  of  the  Renaissance     rapidly  Pel]  into  inner 


408  CHARACTERISTIC    RELICTION 

decay.  Thus,  that  mysterious,  uncomfortable,  stir- 
ring force,  is  ever  indispensable ;  indeed,  life  seems 
to  obtain  through  it  alone  an  enduring  consoli- 
dation, and,  indeed,  an  incomparable  worth.  How 
does  all  this  explain  itself  save  that  more  must  be 
present  in  the  whole  of  our  life,  and  that  further 
energies  must  rule  in  us  if  morality  is  to  attain  the 
content  and  the  position  claimed  for  it  here. 

When  we  view  the  several  points  which  have 
hitherto  occupied  our  attention,  we  discover  in  all  the 
multiplicity  one  fact  running  through  all — a  further 
movement  of  life  beyond  the  point  of  hindrance. 
And  this  fact  is  a  pure  inwardness  from  whose  growth 
a  further  consolidation  and  a  turn  of  life  were  expected. 
But,  in  the  meantime,  this  inwardness  floats  entirely 
in  the  air,  and  we  have  not  yet  seen  how  it  can  gain 
a  characteristic  content,  and  how  it  can  grow  into  a 
self-reliant  kingdom.  And  yet  there  lies  here  far  too 
much  actuality  for  us  to  consider  the  whole  as  a  mere 
play  of  fancy.  What  appears  as  not  easily  compre- 
hensible in  the  life  of  the  individual  is  found  in  the 
history  of  mankind  as  a  great  characteristic  trait. 
Here  the  new  mode  of  life  appears  especially  in  the 
raising  of  life  beyond  all  mere  culture.  At  all  times 
there  is  present  in  life  more  than  civilisation  and 
culture,  but  in  special  epochs  this  More  comes  into 
bold  relief  and  to  full  self-consciousness.  There  are 
times  when  special  circumstances  bring  civilisation  and 
culture  to  a  standstill  and  even  to  a  retrogression,  and 
yet,  in  spite  of  this,  such  circumstances  do  not  invest 
the  times  with  mental  and  moral  emptiness  but 
develop  a  noble  and  worthy  life  in  another  direction. 

The    epoch    of  the   dissolution    of  antiquity    was, 


SIGNS   OF   A   NEW   DEPTH    OF   LIFE  409 

measured  by  its  achievements  in  culture,  highly  barren 
and,  indeed,  unedifying ;  but  it  was  this  epoch  which 
brought  for  the  first  time  the  life  of  the  soul  to  a  full 
self-reliance  within  the  human  province,  and  which 
penetrated  beyond  all  purely  subjective  inwardness  to 
an  inner  world — to  one  of  the  greatest  turnings  in 
the  whole  history  of  human  life.  Thus,  we  are  ever 
able  to  draw  much  from  such  men  as  Plotinus 
and  Augustine,  and  they  are  valued  by  us  as 
heroes  of  the  spirit  although  they  damaged  more 
than  they  aided  culture.  The  fact  that  they  made 
accessible  to  man  a  new  world  of  pure  inwardness 
signifies  more  than  the  most  brilliant  performances  in 
the  mere  work  of  culture. 

Hitherto  we  have  had  more  questions  than  answers, 
more  puzzles  than  solutions,  so  that  a  conclusion  at 
this  stage  of  our  inquiry  is  impossible.  But  within 
the  province  of  the  inner  life  an  earnest  effort  is  itself 
a  fact,  and  it  must,  especially  when  an  essential  re- 
newal stands  in  question,  be  present  in  that  which 
hovers  as  a  far-away  gleam  but  which  also  was  the 
possession  of  the  soul  from  the  very  start  of  its  enter- 
prise. If  it  were  not  present,  how  could  such  a  far- 
away aim  move  us  '.  Pascal's  words  arc  valid  not  only 
for  religion:  "Thou  wouldest  not  seek  me  had  it  not 
been  that  thou  hadst  already  found  ine."  Hut  it  be- 
hoves us  to  work  out  the  hidden  possession  in  order 
to  press  on  from  mere  ideas  and  suggestions  to  a  lull 
and  joyous  life. 


PART  IV.— CHARACTERISTIC  RELIGION 

(Continued) 

CHAPTER    XIII 

c.  The  Unfolding  of  a  Religion  of  a 
Distinctive  Kind 

1.  Introductory 

Various  indications  of  a  new  depth  have  already 
become  visible  ;  they  all  point  to  the  fact  that  a  further 
inner  life,  lying  far  beneath  the  surface,  reveals  itself, 
and  that  a  reality  previously  hindered  by  the  entangle- 
ments has  now  been  gained.  Such  a  movement 
could  never  originate  from  mere  man,  but  must  have 
originated  from  the  All;  it  can  only  originate, 
according  to  the  whole  course  of  our  investigation, 
because  the  All- Life  is  present  not  only  in  its  un- 
folding to  become  a  world,  but  also  within  us  as  a 
Whole  in  the  form  of  immediacy.  That  this  actually 
happens  is  the  vindication  of  religion  as  it  shapes  itself 
into  the  Characteristic  mode ;  but  such  a  religion 
allows  itself  to  be  proved  only  by  the  discovery 
of  a  new  life — only  by  an  original  connection  of 
life  in  which  an  actuality  manifests  itself,  and 
reveals  to  us  our  own  being  as  well  as  the  whole  of 
reality. 

This  New  cannot  be  of  a  sudden  and  unprepared 

410 


A   RELIGION   OF   A   DISTINCTIVE    KIND       411 

kind,  but  must  somehow  be  imbedded  in  us,  or  how 
otherwise  could  it  become  our  inmost  being  '.  But 
on  the  first  view  of  it,  it  appears  as  something  scattered, 
subsidiary,  a  mere  addendum.  But  religion  accom- 
plishes a  transformation  of  this  ;  it  gathers,  binds,  and 
brings  the  scattered  elements  into  a  Whole ;  it  turns 
this  Whole  into  man's  own  act ;  it  places  for  the  first 
time  the  significance  of  the  New  in  a  clear  light  and 
recognises  in  it  the  presence  of  a  new  kind  of  world. 

Thus,  religion  is  not  able  to  obtain  the  final  depth 
and  the  inmost  unity  for  the  life  without  differentiating 
itself  from  the  remaining  spiritual  life,  and  construct- 
ing for  itself  a  province  of  its  own.  Through  such  a 
turn  to  the  Characteristic  mode  religion  comes  into 
definite  contact  with  the  contention  of  the  historical 
religions,  and  gains  a  nearer  relationship  to  these  than 
was  possible  through  the  Universal  mode  of  religion. 
Along  with  the  historical  religions,  religion  of  a 
Characteristic  kind  participates  in  the  conviction  that 
man,  through  a  further  manifestation  of  the  Divine,  has 
been  raised  beyond  the  province  of  entanglements 
into  a  new  life;  and.  further,  Characteristic  Religion 
recognises  a  gradation  of  reality  through  the  further 
development  of  the  Spiritual  Life  within  one's  own 
province  ;  it  invests,  at  the  same  time,  the  inner  ex- 
periences  as  well  as  the  historical  movement  with 
more  significance.  But  in  spite  of  such  a  nearness 
between  these  two  modes  of  religion  there  remains  an 
essential  difference.     The  new  Life,  according  to  the 

Characteristic  mode,  appears,  in  so  far  as  we  under- 
stand it,  not  as  the  exclusive  possession  of  a  particular 
historical  religion,  hut  as  the  common  aim  and  the 
common  fundamental  energy  of  all  religion.     These 


412  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

historical  religions  are  considered  by  us  not  as  irre- 
concilable opponents,  but  as  co-workers  in  the  great 
enterprise  of  the  spiritual  redemption  of  humanity. 
This  does  not  mean  the  placing  of  all  religions 
on  the  same  level  and  effacing  their  differences ; 
indeed,  the  measuring  of  them  all  by  one  common 
aim  may  bring  out  such  differences  still  more. 
But  the  differences  now  lie  within  something 
deeper  and  common  to  them  all— they  lie  within  a 
common  striving,  and  thus  cannot  lead  to  a  stubborn 
enmity.  That  which  any  one  particular  religion 
develops  at  all  times  into  a  spiritual  content  does  not 
signify  a  subtraction  from  the  truth  of  all  other  re- 
ligions, but  is  seen,  when  it  is  brought  to  the  light  of 
the  substance  common  to  all  religions,  as  that  which  is 
able  to  protect  and  strengthen  reciprocally  all  the 
others.  In  dealing  with  the  several  religions,  the 
attention  must  direct  itself  especially  upon  what  each 
religion  contributes  towards  the  formation  of  a  re- 
ligion of  the  Characteristic  kind  ;  we  have  to  see  how 
the  one  truth  works  in  spite  of  the  inadequacy  of, 
and  often  in  opposition  to,  the  scaffolding  of  doctrines 
and  organisations.  Thus  there  has  to  be  raised  up 
in  all  religions  what  in  reality  is  religious  in  them 
— what  is  substance  and  not  a  merely  intellectual 
expression. 

On  account  of  this,  religion  as  well  as  its  treatment 
are  able  thus  to  gain  a  broader  basis  only  through  the 
energetic  concentration  upon  the  inner  life.  The  truth 
of  religion  rests  upon  facts,  or,  rather,  upon  a  connected 
actuality  of  an  inward  kind.  These  facts  are  to  be 
discovered  nowhere  outside  the  human  soul,  and,  in- 
deed, the  facts  are  beyond  all  particular  achievements 


A    RELIGION    OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIND       413 

and  formations  of  lite  which  have  hitherto  occupied  our 
attention.  In  a  far  greater  degree  than  we  as  yet 
have  observed  does  man  become  the  starting-point 
of  a  new  world.  Through  this  turn  the  motives 
of  mere  subjectivism  and  humanism  will  strengthen 
— motives  which  are  only  too  liable  to  make  their 
presence  felt  in  Characteristic  Religion  from  the  out- 
set, and  which  were  able  to  be  guarded  against  more 
easily  in  the  Universal  mode.  Further,  he  who 
recognises  in  the  total-development  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  an  inner  unity  and  an  invisible  depth  may  oppose 
the  turn  to  Characteristic  Religion  because  it  seems 
to  be  a  relapse  into  a  mere  humanism  which  places 
itself  over  against  the  meaning  of  the  remaining  world, 
and  which  seems  to  exchange  the  driving  energy  of 
movements  outside  the  individual  for  a  foundation  of 
life  upon  mere  self-preservation.  Does  the  alleged 
new  kind  of  world  construct  no  more  than  a  mere 
web  of  human  ideas  and  interests,  and  does  it  not 
merely  spin  around  itself  at  a  loss  of  all  connection 
with  definite  reality?  Is  not  the  vigorous  and 
assertive  freedom  of  Universal  Religion  from  mere 
humanisation  lost  again  through  the  turn  to  Charac- 
teristic Religion  ?  Doubtless,  much  subjectivism  and 
much  that  is  merely  human  are  imbedded  in  the 
historical  religions,  and  threaten  also  the  Characteristic 
Religion.  Yet.  however  Luxuriously  such  a  subjectiv- 
ism may  grow  mi  I  Ik-  soil  of  ordinary  life,  it  does  not  ex- 
haust the  mal  ter  indeed,  it  does  noi  touch  the  kernel 
of  I  lie  mat  ter.  In  the  turn  to  a  Characteristic  kind  of 
religion,  as  in  religion  in  general,  t  lie  moving-energy 
is  not  the  self-preservation  of  man  as  mere  man.  but 
the   maintenance  of  a   Spiritual    Life   superior  to   his 


4H  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

interests  and  notions  ^the  impossibility  of  a  renuncia- 
tion of  spiritual  contents  and  values.  Thus,  there 
works  here  a  metaphysical  and  not  a  physical  impetus 
of  life.  And  what  is  hoped  for  as  new  is  not  a  fostering 
and  furthering  of  the  mere-human — not  a  purely  epi- 
curean well-being  of  a  more  refined  nature—  but  a  new 
stage  of  spirituality  which  creates  something  other  than 
hitherto  out  of  man,  which  reduces  the  value  of  what 
had  hitherto  sufficed  as  happiness,  and  which  leads  to 
a  goodness  which  was  hitherto  alien  to  his  life.  The 
historical  religions  show  this  quite  clearly.  They  are 
not  mere  mirror-images  of  human  doings  and  dealings, 
but  through  them  man  has  scaled  spiritual  heights ; 
he  has  learned  to  see  and  to  understand  himself ;  he 
has  gained  courage  and  energy  in  the  struggle  against 
a  petty-human  mode  of  conduct  and  a  petty-human 
world.  It  has  happened  thus,  too,  within  the  intel- 
lectual province.  Nothing  has  more  clearly  set  forth 
the  limitation  of  the  range  of  human  conceptions 
than  the  idea  of  an  Absolute  Reality  and  Life.  The 
demands  imbedded  within  the  intellectual  province 
have  reduced  in  value,  from  their  very  foundation, 
the  forms  of  space  and  time,  and  have  relegated  them 
to  a  particular — not  equally  valid— mode  of  existence. 
And  not  less  have  religions  taught  us  to  think  of  the 
moral  capacities  of  man,  for,  in  the  standards  whicl 
they  have  brought  forth,  the  most  splendid  human 
achievements  fell  far  short  of  the  needs  of  the  human 
soul.  It  is  impossible  to  state  that  religions,  through 
their  representations  to  man  of  the  problems  of  life, 
have  made  existence  lighter  and  more  agreeable,  or 
that  they  have  flattered  his  natural  impulse  for 
happiness.      Although  there  has  been  much  taught  in 


1 


A    RELIGION    OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIND       415 

religions  concerning  the  next  world — far  too  much 
which  belonged  to  the  merely  pictorial  ideas  of  man 
— yet  there  has  worked  herein  a  demand  for  an 
entire  transformation  of  life — a  demand  which  gave 
an  immeasurable  earnestness  to  the  actions  of  man. 

This  detaching  of  a  spiritual  world — a  world  of  inde- 
pendent inwardness— from  human  doings  and  dealings 
operates  in  all  religions,  and  is  able  to  express  itself  in 
so  far  as  religion  is  conceived  by  the  entire  conscious- 
ness to  be  a  fact  of  the  Spiritual  Life  and  not  of  mere 
man,  and  in  so  far  as  the  Spiritual  Life  itself  is  conceived 
as  an  encompassing  and  an  overcoming  of  the  antithesis 
between  subject  and  object,  and  as  a  development 
and  not  a  mere  copy  of  reality.  On  such  a  ground 
as  this,  the  movement  to  Characteristic  Religion  is 
secure  against  the  danger  of  solipsism  ;  and  so  far  as 
a  further  development  of  the  Spiritual  Life  virtually 
appears,  a  new  kind  of  an  entirely  active  reality  is 
gained.  Everything  depends  then  upon  whether  such 
a  turn  of  life  happens ;  the  turn  can  happen,  as  life 
shows,  through  its  own  development  and  through  the 
construction  of  a  new  reality. 

Nevertheless,  the  danger  of  a  humanising  of  religion 
is  considerably  increased  at  this  new  stage.  And 
further,  the  more  life  is  pushed  back  into  an  invisible 
region,  the  less  arc  we  able  to  bring  the  spiritual 
content  to  an  adjusted  expression  ;  and  if  man  fails 
here,  he  becomes  satisfied  with  mere  symbols  which 
incessantly  have  to  be  referred  back  to  their  basal 
truth  in  order  not  to  relapse  into  purely  illusory 
images.  In  order  to  be  armed  againsl  such  a  danger, 
it  is  necessary  never  to  allow  Characteristic  Religion  to 

tall    outside   the  whole  of  religion,    bul    to   consider   it 


41()  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

constantly  as  one  side  of  that  whole.  The  Universal 
mode  of  religion  must  remain  at  hand  if  the 
Characteristic  mode  is  fully  to  preserve  its  spiritual 
character,  and  is  to  he  protected  also  from  dangers  of 
all  kinds.  Thus,  we  come  to  the  relation  between 
these  two  modes  of  religion.  How  precisely  this 
relationship  is  to  be  conceived,  and  what  rights  it 
has,  are  matters  for  further  investigation,  for  misunder- 
standing is  only  too  apt  to  enter  here — misunderstand- 
ing which  our  prior  consideration  has  not  sufficiently 
dealt  with. 

Certainly,  there  are  not  two  religions  but  simply 
one  religion,  but  this  one  could  well  have  different 
stages,  and  such  might  be  indispensable  to  an 
entire  vivifieation  of  the  whole.  Indeed,  if  we 
take  our  stand  decisively  upon  a  religion  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  in  opposition  to  a  religion  of  the 
mere-human  kind,  the  more  necessary  it  is  to  relate 
our  religion  to  the  whole  of  the  Spiritual  Life,  or, 
rather,  to  bind  this  Spiritual  Life  into  a  Whole, 
and  to  acknowledge  it  in  its  independence.  But 
now  we  discover  the  hindrances  upon  which  the 
development  of  the  Spiritual  Life  clashed.  These 
hindrances  made  us  seek  for  a  new  stage  of  life  and, 
through  this,  religion  receives  a  definite  meaning,  and 
must  now  approve  itself  through  definite  achievements 
as  a  Characteristic  Religion.  All  this  connects  itself 
again  with  the  Universal  mode,  and  obtains  a  secure 
footing  against  all  embarrassments.  Upon  the  ground 
of  history  there  has  never  been  presented  a  Universal 
religion  of  a  self-reliant  kind,  but  a  Universal  religious 
mode  of  thought  has  rapidly  fallen  into  decay  as  soon 
as  it  gave  up  all  connection  with  the  Characteristic 


A    RELIGION   OF   A    DISTINCTIVE   KIND       417 

mode  of  religion.  But,  at  the  same  time,  the 
Universal  mode  maintains  an  independent  importance 
in  so  far  as  in  it  the  elevation  of  man  to  spirituality 
attains  to  great  energy  and  clearness,  an  elevation  which 
also  underlies  the  Characteristic  mode.  The  Universal 
mode  has  to  bring  movements  and  experiences  into  a 
current  out  of  which  the  turn  to  the  Characteristic 
mode  takes  place ;  for  without  the  undertaking  of  a 
struggle  against  the  whole  of  the  world,  the  longing 
after  a  new  order  of  things  acquires  no  personal  truth. 
How  unsympathetic,  for  instance,  is  the  officious 
confession  of  the  inability  of  human  reason  presented 
by  people  who  have  never  undertaken  any  struggle 
in  order  to  possess  genuine  knowledge,  and  who  are 
unaware  of  the  pain  and  renunciation  involved  in  such 
a  struggle.  How  unsympathetic  are  those  who  depict 
the  nature  of  man  as  totally  depraved,  and  declare 
him  as  corrupt  from  the  beginning  because  he  is 
by  no  means  equal  to  his  spiritual  tasks,  and, 
indeed,  has  often  stood  in  direct  opposition  to  such 
tasks. 

Rut  the  Characteristic  mode  requires  an  incessant 
relation  to  Universal  Religion  also  as  a  counter- 
weight against  a  threatening  narrowness.  Through 
every  turn  into  the  particular,  Characteristic  Religion 
must  maintain  an  influence  upon  the  whole  of  life,  and 
the  total-task  must  remain  present  in  each  particular 
point,  and  must  be  furthered  by  it.  Otherwise 
Characteristic  Religion  becomes  in  itself  a  mere  refuge 
from  the  exigencies  of  existence,  and  for  the  remainder 
of  life  it  becomes  a  numb  and  gloomy  narrowness. 
Indeed,   such    apartness   may   endanger    the    spiritual 

character  of  religion,  since  by  it  religion  may   lose 

87 


418  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

evermore  all  definite  content,  and  may  sink  finally 
to  a  mere  agitation  of  empty  emotion. 

Our  affirmation  of  the  growth  of  Characteristic 
Religion  from  the  Universal  pretends  in  no  way  to  be 
an  account  of  the  historical  course  of  religion  with 
peoples  and  individuals.  In  connection  with  such  a 
development,  positive  religion  aims  at  constructing 
the  starting-point,  and  it  is  only  later  that  a  general 
mode  of  thinking  develops  itself  and  exercises  a  criti- 
cism on  the  traditional  material — a  criticism  which 
appears  first  of  all  as  mainly  negative  but  which 
finally  leads  back  to  a  positive  valuation  of  things 
Then  only  we  reach  the  ground  of  philosophic  dis- 
cussion, and  now  the  double-sidedness  of  religion 
becomes  recognisable  within  its  one  totality. 

Understood  thus,  both  modes  must  remain  per- 
manently side  by  side,  and  refer  reciprocally  to  one 
another.  Through  this,  the  whole  of  religion  gains 
an  incessant  movement,  and  this  movement  is  of 
great  advantage  as  a  weapon  of  defence  against  the 
finality  of  dogmatism.  At  the  same  time,  however, 
such  a  movement  gives  free  room  for  the  characteristics 
of  individuals  and  times.  In  the  whole  of  religion, 
indeed,  the  Universal  and  the  Characteristic  modes 
work  together,  but  their  relationship  can  shape  itself 
in  varied  ways,  and  here  the  one,  and  there  the  other, 
stands  in  the  foreground  ;  thus,  either  the  greatness 
and  energy  of  the  Spiritual  Life  absorb  the  con- 
viction, or,  first  and  foremost,  the  hindrances  are  felt, 
and  a  further  manifestation  of  the  Divine  is  desired 
as  the  only  possible  means  of  salvation.  The  leading 
religious  personalities  present  us  with  very  different 
combinations.     How  great,  for  instance,  is  the  distance 


A    RELIGION   OF   A   DISTINCTIVE   KIND      419 

between  Luther  and  Zwingli  in  spite  of  all  the  affinity 
of  their  ideas  !  Probably  none  of  these  personalities 
developed  both  sides  of  religion  more  energetically 
than  Augustine,  and  even  he  was  able  to  adjust  both 
sides  only  in  an  imperfect  degree. 

Thus,  a  view  opens  out  upon  much  movement 
and  a  rich  manifold,  and  also  upon  oppositions  and 
struggles ;  but  nowhere  more  than  in  religion  does 
the  struggle  itself  demonstrate,  through  its  stirring 
of  all  the  energies,  the  power  of  the  Whole  and  the 
necessity  of  striving. 

We  have  now  attempted  to  find  a  secure  place 
for  Characteristic  Religion,  and  our  next  object  is 
to  reach  nearer  to  its  content. 

2.  The  New  Life- Process 
(a)  The  Main  Tliesis. — The  assertion  of  Character- 
istic religion  consists  in  the  fact  that  a  pure  self- 
subsistence  of  the  Spiritual  Life  within  the  human 
soul,  as  a  communication  of  an  Absolute  Inner  Life, 
includes  a  claim  which  man  acknowledges  as  his  true 
nature  and  shapes  his  life  accordingly,  and  includes 
the  hope  that  he  gains  an  entire  superiority  to  all 
conflicts  and  hindrances.  As  a  self-subsistence  of 
the  Spiritual  Life,  the  inwardness  here  in  question 
cannot  signify  a  special  province  by  the  side  of 
reality:  it  must  signify  the  most  essential  nature- 
the  inmost  depth — of  reality.  And,  at  the  same  time, 
this  inwardness  may  not  be  mere  subjectivity,  but 
has  to  unlock  a  new  content;  and  in  such  an  achieve- 
ment it  can  iu  no  way  be  the  work  of  any  indi- 
vidual point  of  the  nature,  but  must  originate  from 
the  whole  of  the  Spiritual  Life.      This  precisely  is  the 


420  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

conviction  of  Characteristic  religion  that  such  an 
inwardness  becomes  a  pure  self-existence  not  merely 
through  its  development  by  means  of  the  world  but 
also  in  opposition  to  the  world,  and  that  it  brings 
help  to  man  in  his  troubles — troubles  which  otherwise 
threaten  to  make  him  succumb  under  his  burden ; 
through  the  creation  not  merely  of  individual  processes 
of  life  but  of  a  new  unity  of  life  in  man,  life  is  freed 
from  its  imposed  deadlock  and  is  brought  again  into 
a  fresh  current.  How  all  this  happens  with  man  is 
now  to  be  considered  more  closely. 

The  point  of  departure  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact 
that   the   problem   originates   beyond    all   particular 
achievements   of  man,  and  also   beyond    the   whole 
explanation  of  achievements  ;   it   is  a  problem    con- 
cerning what  man  is  in  the  whole  of  his  soul — in  the 
whole  of  his  character.      In  all   this,    Life  appears 
solely  concerned  with  itself — with  its  own  situation — 
and  in  no  way  appears  to  reach  beyond  itself,   and 
yet   in  what  life   does   or   leaves  undone  in  such  a 
seclusion  seems  to  lie  the  decision  concerning  its  work, 
concerning  its  success  or  failure.     Expressions  to  re- 
present such  a   fact  do  not  fail  us  here  altogether : 
we  speak  of  moral  character,  moral  personality,  etc., 
but  we  do  so  in  danger  of  narrowing  and  coarsening 
what  stands  here  in  question  from  the  very  outset. 
What  happens  here  is  mysterious  enough.    Life  forges 
its  way  here,  beyond  the  work  of  the  world,  to  a 
persistency  and   duration    in    itself,  to   a  new  kind 
of  being,  but   in   all   this  it   is   at   the  outset  split 
up    into  so   many  isolated    appearances,  and    it  falls 
easily   into   mere   subjectivity.     But   some   kind    of 
unity  seems  present  in  the  foundation,  but  it  is  not 


A   RELIGION   OF    A    DISTINCTIVE   KIND      421 

able  to  overcome  the  hindrance,  and  succeeds  in 
bringing  forth  no  more  than  poor  results.  The  whole 
is  as  though  nebulous  or  veiled,  and  how  it  is  possible 
from  such  vague  motives  to  gain  a  foothold  over 
against  the  entire  world-order  or  even  to  set  up  a  new 
world  over  against  the  old  is  absolutely  incomprehen- 
sible. And  here  Characteristic  religion  steps  in  with 
its  fundamental  assertion  that  a  "  becoming  "  inde- 
pendence of  pure  inwardness  and  the  unfolding  of  a 
new  unity  of  life  result,  but  this  is  shown  to  happen 
not  through  the  energy  of  these  qualities  themselves 
but  through  the  communication  of  the  inmost  nature 
of  things — from  the  pure  self-subsistence  of  reality. 
Certainly  that  communication  is  no  mechanical  in- 
stillation, but  must  awaken  the  energy  of  the  soul 
itself;  but  such  an  energy  does  not  appear  as  a 
natural  possession  but  as  a  gift  and  grace.  What 
is  always  fundamental  in  religion  seems  in  this 
special  position  to  be  certainly  so :  that  the  vivifica- 
tion  of  the  Whole  at  this  particular  position  is  not 
able  to  succeed  without  man's  own  decision  and 
appropriation,  and  this  in  its  turn  includes  in  itself 
an  act  of  the  Whole. 

That  a  new  life  of  pure  inwardness  is  not  found 
in  advance  and  docs  not  rest  upon  particular  effects, 
but  still  that  man  himself  brings  it  forth  and,  in  the 
inmost  of  his  life,  makes  it  the  bearer  and  the  cause 
of  all,  and  that  through  this  he  gains  a  new  kind 
of  reality-  all  this  is  conceived  by  Characteristic 
religion  ;is  a  fact,  and  a  wonder  for  the  defence  of 
which  it  is  ready  to  take  up  with  confidence  a 
struggle  against  the  whole  of  the  remaining  world. 
For    this    new    centre    alone    is    able    to    invesl     the 


422  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

remaining  fluctuating  life  with  a  stability,  for  no- 
where is  life  more  entirely  itself  than  at  this  centre, 
and  nothing  is  able  to  destroy  what  appears  to  it 
here  as  a  certainty.  But  this  holds  valid  only  in  so 
far  as  the  movement  belongs  to  the  Spiritual  Life 
itself,  and  does  not  fall  from  this  into  subjectivity ; 
and  the  main  business  of  religion  is  to  see  its  being 
the  former.  When  man  is  convinced  of  all  this,  the 
cosmic  character  of  the  Spiritual  Life  reaches  a  new 
stage,  so  that  the  new  unity  of  life  has  to  be  viewed 
as  the  achievement  of  the  one  essential  development 
which  decides  the  decisive  character  of  the  Spiritual 
Life. 

Such  a  turn  invests  religion  with  a  sovereignty 
over  the  whole  of  life.  Henceforth  man  gains  out  of 
the  relationship  to  God  not  only  some  kind  of  ascent  of 
his  life,  but  he  gains  also  a  self-reliant  life  and  nature 
over  against  the  world  and  in  the  midst  of  the  most 
serious  upheavals  and  a  threatening  destruction.  In 
this  new  life  the  self-subsistence  of  infinity  becomes  his 
own,  and  opens  out  to  him  the  final  depth  of  reality. 
Thus  the  relationship  to  the  Absolute  Life  as  the 
exclusive  ground  of  spiritual  self-preservation  must 
far  precede  all  remaining  tasks,  and  these  tasks  may 
not  withhold  man,  for  the  relationship  now  demands 
recognition  unconditionally  and  exclusively  as  self- 
sufficient.  And  thus  we  find  on  the  summits  of  religion 
the  claim  raised  that  all  things  are  to  be  loved  not  for 
their  own  sake,  but  for  the  sake  of  God  from  whose 
energy  they  proceed,  and  consequently  they  are 
always  relegated  to  a  secondary  place  through  such  a 
mediation  ;  all  things  thus  had  value  only  in  so  far 
as   they  were  founded  in  God  and  were  filled  with 


A   RELIGION   OF   A   DISTINCTIVE   KIND       423 

His  Life.  All  devotion  to  anything  but  God 
appeared  as  a  robbing  of  God ;  all  belief  in  one's 
own  capacity  to  perform  anything  appeared  as 
culpable  pride  {superbia).  If  thus  God  effects  all 
in  all  and  yet  remains  in  Himself,  no  aim  can 
lie  outside  Himself,  and  consequently  the  conviction 
develops  that  all  happens  for  the  glory  of  God 
{propter  majorcm  dei  gloriam).  It  was  by  no  means 
a  gloomy  fanaticism  that  thought  thus,  as  is  often 
imagined  by  shallow  opinion,  for  even  a  Kant  in 
the  expression  of  his  moral  mode  of  thinking  did  not 
think  so.  "  They  who  place  the  aim  of  creation  in 
the  glory  of  God  (setting  it  forth  in  no  anthropo- 
morphic way)  have  probably  hit  upon  the  best  expres- 
sion." It  was  in  fact  the  anthropomorphic  expression 
which  made  such  a  thought  appear  hard  and  crass ; 
and  such  a  thought  becomes  indispensable  with  the 
recognition  of  that  pure  subsistence-in-itself  of  reality 
and  of  the  redemption  of  life  solely  through  the 
communication  of  such  a  reality. 

This  demand,  however,  is  not  able  to  develop  its 
entire  potencies  unless  it  perceives  with  scrupulous 
clearness  the  wide  difference  between,  and  even  the 
entire  opposition  of,  the  ordinary  human  situation  and 
the  deeper  task  in  hand,  and  unless  the  problem  of 
life  is  immeasurably  heightened.  The  new  standard 
causes  all  which  proceeds  from  natural  impulse  and 
from  a  satisfaction  in  one's  own  powers  to  appear  as 
insufficient,  and,  indeed,  all  now  appears  as  a  contra- 
diction in  the  light  of  the  higher  order  of  things.  It 
is  not  only  this  or  that  particular  act  or  tendency, 
but  the  whole  clinging  to  natural  existence — the 
existence    of    a    mere    creature — which    stamps    this 


424  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

mode  of  thought  as  an  insurrection  against  God  and 
as  an  apostasy  from  God.  Amongst  thinkers  on  this 
subject  Augustine  appears  prominent.  Through  him 
the  elevation  and  emancipation  of  the  ethical  task 
resulted  from  this  raising  of  the  problem  into  the 
Whole,  and  a  new  being  from  the  very  foundation 
upwards  was  longed  for,  but  none  the  less  he  also 
recognised  great  dangers  that  lie  on  this  path.  Here- 
with the  demand  heightens  not  only  its  content  but 
also  its  urgency.  For  the  contradiction  extends  not 
against  something  that  is  apart  from  us  but  against 
the  nearest  thinkable  thing— against  the  Absolute 
Life  that  is  the  basis  of  our  inmost  being,  and  conse- 
quently against  our  own  being  itself.  The  contradic- 
tion runs  against  not  only  an  impersonal  law,  but 
against  the  world-power  immediately  present  as  a 
whole.  Thus  evil  appears  as  a  personal  outrage — a 
grieving  wrong  and  a  contempt  of  the  highest  good  ; 
it  shapes  itself  into  sin  and  guilt,  and  it  weighs  upon 
the  soul  of  man  with  incomparably  greater  heaviness  ; 
it  sets  the  soul  in  agitation  and  fills  it  with  alarm. 
Religions  have  often  expressed  all  this  in  too 
anthropomorphic  a  manner  and  have  distorted  it 
almost  to  morbidness,  but  despite  the  imperfection  of 
the  formulation  the  fundamental  fact  of  an  inner  rift 
in  life  and  of  an  imperative  responsibility  glimmer 
through  it  all  clearly  enough.  This  fact  may  slumber 
for  a  long  time  in  the  consciousness  of  the  individual 
and  of  humanity ;  it  may  be  placed  out  of  sight  by  a 
mode  of  thinking  shallow  and  devoid  of  much  toil,  but 
it  breaks  forth  ever  anew  against  the  opinions  and 
inclinations  of  men,  and  as  soon  as  this  happens  it 
becomes  quickly  the  ruling  energy  of  the  entire  life. 


A    RELIGION    OF    A   DISTINCTIVE    KIND       425 

It   is  evident  that  man's  own  energy  is  not   able 
to  save   him  from  such   a  disunion.     If  a  rescue  is 
possible,  Divine  power  and  grace  must  do  the  work. 
That  such  power  and  grace   really  accomplish   this, 
is  the  fundamental  conviction  of  religion.     Religion 
doubtless  cannot  appeal,  in  proof,  to  any  completed 
work,  for  usually   just   those  personalities  who  felt 
themselves  entirely  certain   of  a   new  life   have  felt 
with    painful  intensity  an  opposition  to  such  a  new 
life  within   their   own  nature.     But   the   experience 
of  the   conflict  was  at   the  same   time  an  elevation 
above    the    conflict,    and    in    this    elevation    they 
grasped  the  immediate  presence  of  a  Higher  Power. 
The  new  life  was  further  strengthened  within  them 
through  this  convulsion  ;  its  origin  in  God  had  now 
become  more  clearly  visible ;  suffering  and  guilt  not 
only  demonstrated   their  deepest  root  in  our  being 
but  they  led  to  the  point  where  a  lofty  "becoming" 
-indeed    a   new    "  becoming "  —  through    a    Higher 
Power  shone  forth  in  the  seeming  collapse  of  man. 
In   all    the    unreadiness  and  darkness  of  the  human 
circle  the  firm  belief  and  the  certain  confidence  asserted 
that  what  was  begun  by  such  a  Power  can  never  get 
lost;  so  that  it  was  a  trust  in  God  which  gave  man 
once  more  a  belief  in  himself. 

The  effort  to  connect  these  movements  and  ex- 
periences  of  the  soul,  with  all  their  clash  and  their 
dialectic,  in  the  inmost  nature— this  resurrection  of 
the  nature  out  of  its  destruction,  this   progressive 

certainty  of  conviction  in  the  midst  of  the  most 
stubborn  doubt,  succeeds  but  imperfect  ly  ;  the  facts 
tend  to  become  more  obscure  and,  indeed,  the  more 
complicated  becomes  the  apparatus  of  thought  winch 


*S6  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

was  called  up  for  the  elucidation  of  the  facts.     It  is 
sufficient  for   religion   that   in  man   an  independent 
point   of  departure,  though   in   direct   contradiction 
to  the  whole  of  his  psychic  life,  has  taken  place  and 
is    maintained.     Herewith   there   results   not  only  a 
rearrangement  but  also  an  inversion  of  life,  and  it  is 
this  which  becomes  the  fundamental  fact  which  soon 
transforms  itself  into   an  immeasurable   task.     Fact 
and  task  together  testify  to  the  presence  of  a  new 
order  of  things  in  the  soul,  and  there  originates,  too, 
a  new  centre  of  life.     But  the  man  must  not,  as  is 
often  the  case,  mistake  particular  aspects   and   pro- 
ceedings for  the  whole  of  life,  and  especially  must  he 
not  extol  agitated  feelings  which  disappear  as  rapidly 
as  they  originate.     Whenever  religion   is  developed 
out    of  the    Spiritual    Life,    a    new    stage    of    the 
Spiritual  Life  on  the  other  side  of  the  branching  of 
psychic   activities  is  required ;  the   reflex  of  such  a 
new  stage  may  be  observed  in  the  immediate  psychic 
life,  but   never   allows   itself  to    be   founded  on  the 
psychic    life.      Severely,    but    not    without    justice, 
Kant  termed  "  the  will  to  feel  such  an  immediate  in- 
fluence of  the  Divine  a  self-contradictory  presump- 
tion."   There  grows  easily  a  luxury  in  alleged  religious 
feelings   which   falls   entirely   outside    the   realm   of 
truth,  and  which    contains  a  good  deal  which  helps 
to  reduce  religion  to  the  level  of  a  merely  subjective 
fancy. 

Religion  is  best  able  to  lay  aside  such  a  reproach 
when  it  brings  with  itself  a  new  kind  of  being,  and 
along  with  this  a  secure  consolidation  of  the  whole 
life.  The  spiritual  concentration  found  in  religion 
with   its   development   of  a   pure  self-subsistence  of 


A    RELIGION   OF   A   DISTINCTIVE   KIND      ¥21 

the  Spiritual  Life  and  not  of  the  mere  subject — this 
gaining  of  a  new  stage  of  life — is  lost  to  him  who 
holds  fast  to  the  naive,   one  might  say,   Ptolemaic 
mode  of  thought — a  mode  of  thought  which  believes 
that  certainty  can  proceed  from  the  external  alone, 
and  which    seeks   to   prove   the  inward  by  the  out- 
ward.    The  historical  development  of  humanity,  and 
especially  the  inner  movement  of  modern  times,  have 
resulted  in  an  inversion  of  the  old  conviction  in  solid 
material  existence,  and  have  shown  more  and  more 
that  all  reality  is  known  only  to  our  inner  experience, 
and  that  there  is  no  kind  of  stability  possible  for  us 
unless  there  is  a  more  stable  unassailable  point  in  our 
own  life.     If  this  is  not  true,  then  absolute  Pheno- 
menalism is  right   in  resolving   the  inner  and  outer 
world  into  a  mere  stream  of  appearances.     Now,  the 
main  concern  and  the  main  achievement  of  religion 
are  to  offer  a  foothold  above  the  vacillation  of  things, 
and  to  lead  life  to  its  most  original   sources.     This 
conviction    is   the   most   certain   thing  of  all  to  the 
Standard  of  the  Spiritual  Life,  and  it  is  that  alone 
which  gives  certainty  to  everything  else.     That  much 
strife  occurs  concerning  this  does  not  alter  the  fact 
itself  but  our  relationship  to  the  fact.     Such  a  central 
life    is  not  perceptible    right  in   front  of  us,  but  we 
have  to  climb  through  our  own  movements  and  ex- 
perience to  the  point  where  it  becomes  accessible  and 
convincing.     And  in  connection  with  this  fact  there 
are  various  stages  visible.     To  him  who  busies  him- 
self entirely  with    the   external   world   and   who  does 
not  reach  some  kind  of  unfolding  of  an   inner  life,  the 
whole    question    of    religion    appears    as   useless,   and 
consequently  he  will  only  possess  an  anthropomorphic 


4*28  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

interpretation  of  the  external  world,  and  will  en- 
deavour to  lay  even  that  on  one  side.  But  he  who 
recognises  a  complex  of  the  inner  life  and  yet  sees  in 
it  only  a  succession  of  individual  activities  outweighing 
all  else  or  a  background  of  life,  and  takes  his  stand 
towards  life  from  such  a  level,  religion  may  be  held 
valid  as  one  province  by  the  side  of  other  provinces, 
but  such  a  conception  of  religion  will  not  attain  an 
imperative  energy  and  will  not  become  the  governing 
principle  of  his  life.  It  is  only  to  him  who  fastens 
the  inward  aspects  into  a  Whole,  and,  along  with 
this,  measures  the  whole  of  his  potencies  by  the 
whole  of  the  demand,  that  a  penetrating  change  of 
life  will  carry  him  to  the  point  where  the  presence 
of  an  Infinite  Life  breaks  forth  and  where  the  appro- 
priation of  such  an  Infinite  Life  for  the  first  time 
affords  an  indestructible  foundation  which  all 
the  contradictions  of  the  remaining  world  can  only 
strengthen.  Thus  there  lies  in  the  relationship  of 
religion  to  man  a  more  than  subjective — a  more  than 
personal — element.  Religion  can  produce  this  element 
only  by  recognising  it  as  something  that  enters  into 
the  life  and  not  by  conceiving  of  it  as  something  in 
the  distance  alone.  But  if  life  relates  itself  in  a 
fundamentally  different  manner  to  morality,  art,  and 
even  science  in  so  far  as  these  unite  into  a  Whole, 
is  it  not  then  characteristic  of  religion  that  it  fastens 
the  personal  judgment  into  a  Whole  ? 

In  any  case,  the  questions  of  the  acknowledgment 
of  religion  by  the  individual  and  of  its  truth  within 
the  Spiritual  Life  should  not  be  confused  with  one 
another.  The  judgment  concerning  the  latter 
question,  which  constitutes  the   main   fact,  depends 


A   RELIGION   OF   A    DISTINCTIVE   KIND       429 

upon  the  fact  whether  Characteristic  religion  truly 
brings  a  further  development  of  the  life  of  the  spirit, 
whether  it  leads  to  contents  and  values  which  lie  far 
above  all  the  subjective  reflections  and  arbitrary 
actions  of  men.  This  question  will  be  dealt  with 
more  fully,  and  its  ramifications  will  be  followed. 
But  before  we  turn  to  it,  we  have  to  notice  the  idea 
of  God  which  issues  from  Characteristic  religion,  and 
to  determine  its  essential  characteristic  formation. 

(/3)  The  Idea  of  God  and  the  Relationship  to  God. — 
Characteristic  religion  draws  its  idea  of  God  from  the 
Life-process  ;  it  cannot  expect  the  idea  to  come  from 
an  external  revelation  as  the  older  and  more  child-like 
mode  of  thought  imagined ;  it  cannot  gain  the  idea 
from  free  speculative  conceptions  whose  shadowy  crea- 
tions are  not  able  to  move  or  take  a  warm  interest  in 
anything.  But  in  the  Life-process  itself  such  a  pene- 
trating culmination  is  not  able  to  take  place  unless  the 
idea  of  God  discloses  further  characteristics  for  man. 
But  there  appears  here  the  paradoxical  character  which 
belongs  to  religion  everywhere,  and  more  particularly 
to  Characteristic  religion.  In  the  apprehension  of  man- 
kind the  intimacy  which  the  idea  of  God  gains  through 
its  further  inclusion  in  life  is  the  most  prominent  thing. 
The  Highest  Power  has  not  only  harboured  human 
needs,  but  such  a  Power  has  had  communication  with 
man,  is  present  within  liis  soul,  lias  become  his  own 
life  and  nature,  as  well  as  his  self-subsistence  over 
against,  the  order  of  the  world.  Here  love  is  raised 
up  into  an  image  of  the  Godhead — love  as  a  self-com- 
munication and  as  essential  elevation  of  the  nature, 

and  as  :m  expression  of  inmost    fellowship.      Since  the 

whole  of  the    Divine    Life  is   here  most   intimately 


430  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

present,  the  relationship  of  Whole  to  Whole  creates 
a  new  unity  of  life  and,  through  the  constant  relation- 
ship, preserves  and  develops  itself ;  there  originates  a 
mutual  intercourse  of  the  soul  and  God  as  between 
an  I  and  a  Thou  ;   and  the  thought  concerning  the 
Godhead  is  not  able  to  attain  genuine  power  unless  it 
endeavours  to  be  a  living  and  operative  unity.     Con- 
sequently, there  culminates   here   a   turn   from   the 
colourless   conception   of  the  Godhead  to  that  of  a 
living  and  personal  God.     The  idea  of  a  personality 
of  God,  whose   inadequacy  shows  itself  as  soon  as 
it    severs   itself    from   the    Life-process   of    religion 
and  appears  in  a  doctrinal  form,  is,  when  found  within 
the  Life-process,  entirely  obvious  and  indispensable. 
Man  can  be  clearly  conscious  of  the  symbolism  of  the 
idea,  and  yet,  at  the  same  time,  grasp  in  it  an  incon- 
testable intrinsic  truth  which   he   knows   to   be   far 
above  all  mere  anthropomorphism.     For  it  is  not  a 
merely  human  greatness  that  has  been  transferred  to 
the  Divine,  but  it  is  a  return  to  the  source  of  a  Divine 
Life  and  its  mutual  communication  with  man  ;  all  this 
is  not  an  argument  of  man  concerning  God,  because 
the  Divine  must  be  apprehended  through  the  Divine 
within   us.     All   attacks   on   the  personal   character 
of  God  root  themselves  finally  in  the  fact  that  an 
energetic  religious  Life-process  is  wanting — a  Life- 
process  which  considers  the  question  not  so  much 
from  without   as   from  within.       Whenever  such   a 
Life-process  is  found,  there  is  simultaneously  found, 
often  in  direct  opposition  to  the  conscious  wording, 
an  element  of  such  a  personal  character  of  God. 

But  this  intimacy  is  only  one  aspect  of  the  idea  of 
God  ;  and  the  danger  of  falling  into  a  mere-human 


A   RELIGION   OF   A   DISTINCTIVE   KIND      431 

mode  of  conception  is  avoided  if  the  further  removal 
of  God  from  immediate  existence  is  simultaneously 
acknowledged.     Characteristic  religion  brings  forth  a 
new  content  only  in  so  far  as  it  penetrates  beyond  the 
Divine  effects  in   the  universe  to  a  self-subsistence, 
and  recognises  in  this  a  new  depth  of  reality  superior 
to  all  other  formative  action.      This  can  only,  happen 
through  a  loosening  from  the  bonds  of  the  world  and 
an  elevation  above  all  the  conceptions  of  the  world  ; 
thus  there  appears  here  something  simply  not  found 
in   the   world — an   elevated    summit,    a    mysterious 
sublimity.     If  this  sublimity  superior  to  the  world 
acquires  an  abode  in  the  soul,  and,  indeed,  becomes  the 
inmost  and  most  intimate  of  our  being,  and  enables 
us   to  participate  in  the  self-subsistence  of  infinity, 
it  implants  within  us  a  fathomless  depth  which  pushes 
away    the   external    nearest-at-hand   existence,    and 
it  makes  us  a  problem  to  ourselves — a  problem  which 
transforms  the  whole  of  life — whilst  it  learns  to  under- 
stand and  to  handle  that  which  at  the  outset  appeared 
to  be  its  whole  life  as  a  mere  phase  and  appearance. 
Tims  it  is  the  same  religion  which  opens  out  from 
God  to  man  and  simultaneously  opens  itself  out  in 
man  himself  and  becomes  a  great  mystery  to   him. 
Therefore,  in  the  idea  of  God  the  intimate  and  the 
ultimate  must   be  present  if  religion   is  to  reach    its 
full  development   and   to  avoid  the  dangers  which 
everywhere  threaten  it.     Tims  the  Godhead  appears, 
Oil    the  one  side,  at  an    infinite  height    and    distance 
above   man.  so   tlial   man   discovers  his   pettiness  with 
great  bitterness;  and,  on  the  other  side,  the  Divine 
appears  as  most  int  imate  and  as  the  dearesl  possession, 
so  thai  man  is  raised  through  this  to  immeasurable 


432  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

greatness.  The  fact  that  both  interlace  in  one  Life- 
process,  that  they  do  not  follow  one  another  but  work 
together,  that  the  unity  is  present  in  the  manifold 
and  the  ultimate  present  in  the  intimate,  implants  an 
inexhaustible  movement  within  the  life,  and  enables 
it  ever  to  renew  its  youth  ;  life  is  thus  carried  beyond 
all  final  formations  and  forbids  all  self-sufficient  con- 
clusions. The  contrast  of  the  finite  and  the  infinite, 
of  the  unreal  and  the  perfect,  which  was  already 
developed  by  religion  of  a  Universal  kind,  and  which 
was  recognised  as  the  source  of  all  sublimity,  becomes 
for  the  first  time  an  immediate  personal  experience 
of  the  whole  man. 

A  closer  relationship  to  the  vicissitudes  of  life 
corresponds  to  the  richer  content  of  the  idea  of 
God.  The  fact  that  the  new  life  discloses  itself  to 
man  not  as  something  at  hand  but  as  a  counter-action 
to,  and  as  the  overcoming  of,  an  unreason  otherwise 
insuperable  within  its  own  domain,  shows  the  idea 
of  God  in  a  quite  different  relationship  to  suffering 
and  unreason  than  had  hitherto  been  the  case.  The 
manifestation  of  the  Divine  in  Universal  religion  also 
occurred  within  an  incessant  struggle  with  a  resisting 
environment.  But  there  the  opposition  seemed  to  lie 
mainly  in  the  external  situation,  and  a  decisive  ascent 
beyond  it  was  confidently  expected.  But  later  the 
view  of  reality  appeared  still  more  gloomy,  and  our 
Spiritual  Life  shows  itself  involved  in  the  entangle- 
ment to  its  very  root,  so  that  help  was  expected  only 
through  the  communication  of  an  entirely  new  life 
by  means  of  an  over- world  Power.  Now  that  Power 
has  turned  towards  us  and  has  had  a  care  of  our 
misery   by   raising   us   to   itself.     Can    this    happen 


A   RELIGION   OF   A   DISTINCTIVE   KIND      433 

unless  such  a  Power  is  itself  affected  by  that  suffer- 
ing,  and   unless   it   enters   into  the    very  sphere   of 
suffering?     Is  there  a  genuine  help  obtained  where 
an   inward   participation — a   conjoint   experience — is 
wanting?     The   doctrine   of  a  suffering  God   arose 
from  such  a  train  of  thought — a  God  who  took  our 
misery  upon  Himself  in  order  to  free  us  entirely  from 
it.     This  doctrine  is  an  irrefragable   testimony  of  a 
deep   feeling,   but,  through   its  turn  to    a  doctrinal 
form,  it  strikes  a  decisively  wrong  note.     It  is  true 
that  religion  must  insist  on  the  intimacy — the  closest 
intimacy — of  the  Divine  presence  precisely  in  suffering, 
but  to  place  the  very  suffering  in  God  Himself,  and 
especially  to  press  such  a  great  mystery  into  formu- 
lated   ideas,    leads    to    anthropomorphic    and    even 
mythological  ideas  of  an  intolerable  kind.     Since  such 
a  train  of  thought  does  not  set  suffering  in  the  final 
cause,  it  devises  gradations  in  God  ;  it  develops  the 
idea  of  a  reconciliation  and  substitution,  and  it  feels 
itself  justified  in  striving  to  express  the  impotence  of 
man  and  his  entire  dependence  on   love   and   grace. 
This  is  a  fundamental  subversion  of  and  a  direct  injury 
to  religion  in  so  far  as  it  does  not  carry  the  efficacy 
to  its  final  root — to  God  Himself,  and  in  so  far  as  it 
will  not  allow  that  any  success  can  be  brought  forth 
through  man's  efforts.      Further,  in  the  religious  pro- 
vince a  reciprocal  action  of  the  Divine  and  the  human 
takes  place;  the  intimate  relationship  to  God  suffers 
injury  when  redemption   is  expected  through   media- 
tion ;  indeed,  the  notion   that  God  does  not    help  us 
through  His  own  will  and  power,  but  requires  first,  of 
all  His  own  feeling  of  pity  to  be  roused,  is  an  outrage 

on  God  and  a  darkening  of  the  foundation  of  religion 

28 


434  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

— of  the  intimate  presence  of  infinite  love  and  grace. 
Also,  in  spite  of  his  guilt  and  in  the  midst  of 
his  guilt  God  must  be  near  to  man.  Dare  we  for 
this  reason  ascribe  guilt  to  God  ?  All  dogmatic 
formulation  of  such  fundamental  truths  of  religion 
becomes  inevitably  a  rationalism  and  a  treatment  of 
the  problem  by  means  of  human  relationships  and 
according  to  human  standards.  Such  a  rationalism 
would  have  injured  religion  far  more  than  it  has 
already  done  were  not  life  itself  raised  beyond  all  the 
disputation  of  ideas  through  the  inner  abiding  energy 
of  the  Divine.  It  is  sufficient  for  the  religious  con- 
viction to  experience  the  nearness  of  God  in  human 
suffering  and  His  help  in  the  raising  of  life  out  of 
suffering  into  a  new  life  beyond  all  the  insufficiency 
of  reason.  Indeed,  the  more  intuitively  this  neces- 
sary truth  is  grasped,  the  less  does  it  combine 
into  a  dogmatic  speculation,  and  the  purer  and  more 
energetically  is  it  able  to  work. 

The  facts  are  similar  in  connection  with  the 
relation  of  the  Absolute  Life  to  history  as  they  are 
in  connection  with  suffering.  History  also  gains 
a  far  greater  significance  in  the  Life-process  of 
Characteristic  religion.  For  it  is  only  through  ex- 
periences, shocks,  and  transformations  of  the  soul 
that  the  over-world  life  unlocks  itself  to  us ;  such 
a  life  appears  as  a  higher  stage  which  postulates  a 
higher  still  beyond  itself,  and  gains  its  energy  from 
such  a  source.  In  reality  there  originates  a  "  history 
of  the  soul "  only  in  connection  with  Characteristic 
religion,  and  a  place  in  the  literature  of  the  world 
was  first  gained  for  such  a  history  by  the  Confessions 
of  Augustine.     But  because  the  movement  presents 


A    RELIGION   OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIND       435 

itself  to  man  as  a  succession,  and  because  grades  of 
revelation  contrast  with  each  other,  yet,  to  place  an 
historical  process  or  even  an  inward  change  in  God  is 
again  to  judge  from  human  analogy,  and  to  measure 
God  by  human  standards.  But  this  happens  if  we  con- 
ceive love  in  God  as  having  only  begun  at  a  certain 
point  of  time,  if  under  an  appeasement  of  an  alleged 
wrath,  or  if  that  love  reached  its  consummation  only 
through  the  efficacy  of  certain  conditions.  It  is  a  mis- 
take to  attempt  to  reach  a  greater  intimacy  of  God 
through  projecting  forth  human  notions  of  His  image. 
Even  in  its  simple  final  root  religion,  as  a  union  of 
the  new  nature  of  man  with  God  and  as  a  participa- 
tion of  his  being  in  an  Absolute  Life,  places  the 
whole  of  life  under  a  new  aspect,  and  causes  an  entire 
revolution  of  the  being.  Also,  the  union  with  the 
Divine  brings  an  entire  calm  under  the  vicissitudes 
of  life  ;  nowhere  else  than  in  the  relationship  with 
God  can  this  be  gained.  The  Infinite  Power  and 
Love  that  lias  grounded  a  new  spontaneous  nature 
in  man  over  against  a  dark  and  hostile  world,  will 
conserve  such  a  new  nature  and  its  spiritual  nucleus, 
and  shelter  it  against  all  perils  and  assaults,  so  that 
life  as  the  bearer  of  Life  Eternal  can  never  be  wholly 
lost  in  the  stream  of  time.  Thus  we  obtain  in  this 
connection  an  essential  portion  of  religion  with  its 
belief  in  immortality — the  conviction  of  the  indestruc- 
tibility of  that  spiritual  unity  of  life  in  man,  which  is 
the  work  of  God.  And  it  is  from  such  a  conception 
that  the  conviction  of  the  eternity  of  the  Divine  Life 
proceeds    a  conviction  which  gives  man  a  trust  in  the 

preservation    in    sonic   kind   of    way   of    I  lie    spiritual 
nucleus  of  his  nature  and    not    of  his   natural   indivi- 


486  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

duality  ;  and  upon  which  the  certainty  is  grounded  in 
him  "  that  what  can  not  pass  away  for  God  can  not 
pass  away  for  itself  either.  But  God  is  Lord  of  the 
living  and  the  dead "  (Augustine).  The  train  of 
thought  of  religion  here  is :  that  where  the  greater  is 
certain  there  can  be  no  doubt  about  the  less.  Re- 
ligion holds  as  certain  and  conclusive  that  this  new 
inner  foundation  is  the  greatest  thing  of  all  and  the 
wonder  of  wonders,  because  it  carries  within  itself  the 
power  and  certainty  of  the  overcoming  of  the  old 
world  and  the  creation  of  a  new  one  ;  it  is  on  account 
of  this  that  religion  longs  for  the  conviction  of  the 
whole  man,  and  brands  the  denial  of  this  as  pettiness 
and  unbelief.  The  world  may  therefore  remain  to 
the  external  glance  as  it  appeared  before — a  kingdom 
of  opposition  and  darkness  ;  its  hindrances  within  and 
without  may  drive  everything  before  themselves ; 
they  may  contract  and  even  seemingly  destroy  man 
and  his  spiritual  potencies ;  all  his  acts  may  seem 
fruitless  and  lost,  and  his  whole  existence  may  seem 
to  sink  into  nothingness  and  worthlessness.  Yet 
through  the  entrance  of  the  new  life  and  a  new  world 
everything  is  transformed  from  within,  and  the  clear- 
ness of  the  light  appears  all  the  more  by  the  side  of 
all  the  depth  of  the  darkness.  Indeed,  in  the  midst 
of  all  the  mysteries  of  existence,  hope  and  conviction 
and  certainty  will  consolidate  our  experience,  so  that 
ultimately  evil  itself  must  serve  the  development  of  the 
good.  "  This  is  the  spiritual  power  which  reigns  and 
rules  in  the  midst  of  enemies,  and  is  powerful  in  the 
midst  of  all  oppression.  And  this  is  nothing  other 
than  that  strength  is  perfected  in  weakness,  and  that 
in  all  tilings  T  can  gain  life  eternal,  so  that  cross  and 


A    RELIGION   OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIND       437 

death    are    compelled   to   serve   and    to    contribute 
towards  my  salvation  "  (Luther). 

(7)  The  Verification  of  Religion  through  the  Pro- 
gressive  Development  of  Life. — Religion,  as  all  things 
original  and  axiomatic,  can  establish  its  truth  not 
through  a  reduction  to  general  conceptions,  but  only 
through  its  development  and  effects.  And  in  order 
to  do  this,  its  effects  take  place  in  the  conditions 
and  content  of  life  and  not  merely  in  the  reflec- 
tion and  frame  of  mind  of  the  subject ;  it  brings 
forth  not  merely  isolated  stimulations  but  a  thorough- 
going further  development.  That  such  is  the  case 
in  Characteristic  religion,  we  shall  seek  to  show ; 
but  we  have  to  show  first  of  all  how  the  indications 
of  a  new  depth — a  matter  which  has  previously 
occupied  us — now  grow  clear  and  integrate  them- 
selves ;  secondly,  how  the  movements  of  life,  begun 
in  Universal  religion,  are  now  carried  further ;  and 
thirdly,  how  from  such  a  further  development  new 
characteristic  traits  enter  into  the  entire  life. 

(aa)  Elucidation  and  Integration  of  Life.  —  A 
yearning  aspiration  after  a  self-reliant  inwardness 
grows  over  against  all  the  work  of  the  world  and  all 
culture  and  in  the  midst  of  all  the  confusion  of  life. 
But  such  an  inwardness  needs  a  new  fundamental 
relation  of  life — it  needs  an  inner  world  superior  to 
all  subjective  reflection.  Religion,  and  religion  alone, 
is  able  to  grant  this  through  the  manifestation  of  an 
absolute  self-subsistence,  and  it  is  here  alone  that  the 
reality  integrates  itself  into  a  Whole  and  works  as  a 
Whole  towards  each  individual  ;  here  man  is  delivered 
from  the  psychic  isolation  into  which  he  must  other- 
wise fall,  in  proportion  as  the  movement  of  culture 


438  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

dissolves  the  sensuous  connections  of  life  and  separates 
individuals  ever  farther  from  each  other.     Religion,  in 
the  experience  of  universal  history,  proved  itself  indis- 
pensable for  the  gaining  of  an  inner  connection  of  life, 
for  the  deepening  life  in  itself,  for  overcoming  all  the 
alienation  in  one's  own  nature,  for  drawing  to  one's 
self  and    vivifying  what  hitherto  had  appeared  as  a 
mere  environment.     It  has  unlocked  man  to  himself, 
and  has  revealed  to  him,  through  the  presence  of  an 
absolute  self-subsistence,  a  kingdom  of  pure  inward- 
ness, and  it  is  in  religion  that  man  found  first  of  all 
his  own  inwardness  and  an  inward  relationship  to  the 
world.     This    comes   to   expression   in    innumerable 
examples.       How,    for    instance,    did    the    religious 
movement,  prior  to  and  after  the  Christian  era,  turn 
the  ideal  world  of  classical  culture  into  a  thing  of  soul 
and   inwardness !     How  definitely  connected   in  the 
writings  of  Plotinus  is  the  foundation  of  character  with 
the  turn  to  religion,  and  how  much  did  Augustine 
enhance  the  soul's  moods  and  the  musical  strains  of 
the  Latin  tongue  !     Also,  an  intimate  relationship  to 
environing  nature  and  an  emotional  mutual  intercourse 
with  it  desire  a  development  only  through  the  con- 
viction of  an  inner  presence   of  an  Absolute   Life. 
German  people  pride  themselves  since  Fichte  on  the 
possession  of  a  Qeinilt,  as  a  faculty  specially  developed 
amongst  them,  and  who  else  has  given  the  expression 
such  a  characteristic  sense  except  the  mystics  who 
created  such  a  "  turn  "  from  the  intimate  relationship  to 
the  Eternal  Being  ?     The  inwardness  of  the  soul,  which 
is  the  inheritance  of  our  language,  was  gained  and 
has  unfolded  itself  in  close  connection  with  religion. 
And   it  is  not   only   at   its   advent   alone   that   the 


A   RELIGION   OF   A   DISTINCTIVE   KIND      439 

inwardness  needs  religion ;  if  there  exists  no  cosmic 
inwardness  and  if  we  acquire  no  participation  in  it, 
the  inner  life  visibly  loses  its  root,  its  energy,  and 
its  truth.  Thus  we  often  find  to-day  an  empty 
subjectivity  usurping  the  rights  of  inwardness ;  men 
clutch  eagerly  at  the  letter  and  semblance  of 
things  whilst  the  reality  is  threatening  to  vanish 
entirely. 

Hand  in  hand  with  the  progressive  autonomy 
of  inwardness  goes  a  dominant  position  of  morality, 
and  the  one  is  inseparable  from  the  other.  True 
inwardness  grows  only  where  life  connects  itself  into 
a  Whole,  and  in  order  to  do  this,  it  needs  the  subject's 
own  elevating  deed.  Such  a  deed  is  not  ready-made  ; 
it  has  to  be  wrestled  for  and  formed,  and  here  is 
the  point  where  an  energetic,  manly  and  healthy 
inwardness  differentiates  itself  from  the  weak,  effemi- 
nate and  morbid  disposition  of  romanticism.  Contrari- 
wise, there  is  no  genuine  morality  which  does  not  aim 
at  a  whole  of  the  inwardness  and  does  not  strive  for 
a  new  being.  But  religion  alone  ensures  such  a  mode 
because  it  opens  out  a  new  life  from  cosmic  connec- 
tions, and  makes  the  question  of  the  redemption  of 
the  soul  the  kernel  of  all  effort.  True,  morality  lias 
often  attributed  to  itself  an  absolute  value  outside 
religion  and  often  in  opposition  to  religion  :  the  Stoic 
mode  of  thought  has  proceeded  through  the  centuries 
as  a  permanent  type  of  this  mind.  But  such  a 
morality  loosened  from  religion  is  deficient,  as  in 
connections,  so  also  in  a  living  content  and  a  secure 
foundation  ;   man  here  will  easily  overestimate  his  own 

capacity,  isolate  himself,  and  thus   Call  into  hollow- 

ness.      The  single  point  is  not  able  of  itself  to  lead  any 


440  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

life  from  the  Whole,  if  such  a  life  is  not  communicated 
to  it  from  the  All.  As  soon  as  the  moral  problem  has 
set  itself  upon  the  whole  of  life,  and  as  soon  as  herewith 
not  only  the  greatness  but  also  the  pettiness  of  man 
become  evident,  the  union  with  religion  becomes 
inevitable ;  it  is  in  such  a  union  alone  that  the 
moral  life  integrates  itself  into  a  Whole  and  is  able 
to  justify  its  claims  to  the  leading  position,  which 
otherwise  would  appear  as  dictatorial  and  arbitrary ; 
it  is  in  this  way  alone  that  the  pride  and  hardness  of 
moralism  can  be  held  at  bay — qualities  which  have 
invited  many  assaults  on  morality.  True,  an  act 
— an  encompassing  act  of  the  whole  nature — has  to 
carry  our  Spiritual  Life,  but  this  act  is  itself  more 
than  a  subjective  flight :  it  is  the  appropriation  of  a 
new  life,  and  appears,  in  the  midst  of  all  its  activity, 
as  being  carried  and  even  engendered  by  the  Spiritual 
Life. 

Life  persists  in  the  midst  of  painful  hindrances 
and  ever  finds  new  courage  for  its  ascent.  In  all 
this  we  have  already  recognised  a  difficult  problem — 
even  a  mystery.  For  a  merely  instinctive  clinging  to 
life  would  not  discover  the  energy  for  a  new  develop- 
ment, and  all  subjective  agitation  would  quickly  grow 
weary  in  face  of  the  hardness  of  the  opposition.  That 
positive  impetus  of  life  is  able  to  obtain  an  illumina- 
tion and  a  justification  from  religion — an  illumination, 
because  here  a  new  life  superior  to  the  entangle- 
ments of  human  existence  is  really  mediated ;  a 
justification,  because  this  new  life  is  freed  from  all 
that,  in  the  self-preservation,  was  lower  instinct  or 
narrow  selfishness.  For  it  is  not  mere  man  but  the 
preservation  of  the  Divine  Life  which  now  governs 


A    RELIGION    OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIND       441 

all  the  effort ;  and  the  struggle  is  not  for  a  finite  being 
but  for  the  presence  of  an  Infinite  Life.  We  hear 
over  and  again  religion  reproached  of  lessening  the 
energy  of  life  and  even  of  breaking  the  courage  of 
life.  But  such  a  statement  holds  valid  only  for 
special  times  of  degeneration  of  religion,  or  for  an 
external  view  of  the  matter,  to  which  the  inner  life 
remains  a  sealed  book.  Nothing  in  reality  so  much 
as  religion  has  sustained  man  in  painful  tribulations 
from  within  and  without,  and  filled  him  with  a  joyous 
courage  of  life.  For  man  was  now  transplanted 
from  the  effect  to  the  cause,  from  the  periphery 
to  the  centre,  and  here  Infinite  Life  with  its  per- 
fection became  his  own  life.  No  doubt,  as  we 
have  long  realised,  the  entire  energy  of  affirmation 
deepened  here  upon  the  thoroughness  of  the  nega- 
tion. Hut  how  can  men  with  any  kind  of  alert- 
ness overlook  the  Yea  which  stands  behind  the 
Nay? 

We  saw  the  claims  of  love  and  a  shaping  of  life 
from  out  of  love  persisting  in  the  midst  of  all  the 
hardness  of  human  relations  ;  but  love  itself  found 
no  secure  "ground,"  and  the  movement  towards 
it,  restricted  to  itself,  threatened  to  end  in  empty 
sentimentality  or  mere  pompous  talk  ;  and  oil  en 
enough  such  talk  has  to  hide  a  want  of  substance 
and     truth.      New    contents     of    life    arc    absolutely 

necessary  in  which  man  shall  acquire  a  value  and  shall 

giow  beyond  his  former  self;  if  such  is  to  happen 
over  against  the  whole  condition  of  I  he  world,  there 
is  need  for  new  beginnings,  a  new  world,  an  infinite 
power  and  love,  which  communicate  of  their  fulness 
to  man,  which   free  him   from  oppression,  and    which 


442  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

make  him  capable  of  genuine  love.  In  this  connec- 
tion the  exercise  of  such  a  love  is  able  to  become 
a  testimony  of  its  Divine  origin :  "  that  we  forgive 
our  neighbour  makes  us  certain  that  God  has  forgiven 
us  "  (Luther).  Only  that  a  real  transformation  of  life 
has  to  take  place  herewith,  and  not  simply  a  higher 
estimation  of  what  has  remained  unchanged,  else  we 
sink  back  into  the  subjective  and  anthropomorphic 
which  will  prevent  us,  until  we  overcome  them,  from 
taking  a  single  step  forward  in  religion.  The  expres- 
sion "  Infinite  Love "  contains  something  pictorial 
and  human  which  can  easily  lead  into  error.  But 
the  mere  approximateness,  indeed,  the  inadequacy  of 
the  expression  does  not  matter  so  long  as  the  fact  is 
held  fast  energetically  that,  beyond  all  nature  and 
culture,  a  new  being  is  bestowed  on  man  from  the 
relationship  and  in  the  relationship  to  the  Absolute 
Life — a  being  whose  most  adequate  expression  is  that 
genuine  love. 

Such  a  founding  of  love  in  the  Absolute 
Life  will  shield  it  from  the  effeminacy  and  light- 
ness which  it  so  easily  assumes  amongst  human 
relations ;  it  will  sever  humanity  from  the  external 
appearances  to  which  it  tends  to  cling,  and  will 
unite  it  with  the  kernel  of  man's  being  and,  at 
the  same  time,  will  avoid  all  the  false  idealisations 
which  inevitably  lead  to  grave  disappointments. 
Thus,  secure  against  defacement  and  certain  of  a 
new  spiritual  content,  love  will  work  as  a  power- 
ful motive  towards  the  shaping  of  human  relation- 
ships from  the  foundation  according  to  the  valuation 
which  is  the  due  of  man  as  a  member  of  that  new  life. 
Love  will  undertake  a  manly  struggle  not  only  against 


A    RELIGION    OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIND       443 

what  oppresses  and  defaces  it  from  the  outside,  but  still 
more  against  what  threatens  to  destroy  it  inwardly. 
Thus,  love  of  enemy  can  now  mean  more  than  a 
mere  demand  or  a  mere  phase,  because  the  new  life 
is  able  to  found  an  inner  fellowship  which  certainly 
does  not  simply  abolish  the  opposition  and  struggle, 
indeed,  it  may  not  abolish  them,  but  which,  however, 
raises  man  beyond  them  and  enables  him  to  work 
against  them. 

Thus  religion  binds  together  into  a  Whole  move- 
ments otherwise  isolated  ;  it  gives  a  firm  foothold  to 
things  otherwise  insecure ;  it  illumines  the  darkness 
which  otherwise  enwraps  such  movements.  Now 
for  the  first  time  what  previously  appeared  more 
beside  us  than  in  us  becomes  our  own  act — our  own 
being ;  an  inversion  results  and  along  with  it  an 
immense  elevation  of  life,  because  we  step  out  of 
the  effect  into  the  cause,  and  along  with  this,  gain 
as  our  own  an  infinite  life  and  creativeness  of  pure 
inwardness,  and,  indeed,  find  our  true  self  in  it. 
But  all  this  comes  about  only  in  so  far  as  religion  in 
reality  opens  out  a  new  content — a  new  stage  of  the 
Spiritual  Life — not  from  a  mere  tendency  of  life 
based  upon  some  indeterminate  over-world  and 
"  beyond. "  It  is  essential  to  the  religion  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  that  it  forges  its  way  ever  and  ever 
into  a  content  which  raises  man  beyond  his  initial 
situation  and  not  merely  stirs  him  to  bare  move- 
ments within  his  unaltered  condition.  True,  even  the 
religion  of  the  Spiritual  Lite  cannot  loosen  itself  from 
the  human  form  of  life,  but  it  makes  an  immense 
difference  whether  it  accepts  such  a  Conn  as  valid 
without   any    more    ado,    or    whether    it    deals    with 


444  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

such  a  form  as  a  mere  receptacle — an  entirely 
insufficient  receptacle — of  a  dawning  Spiritual  Life 
within  us. 

(bb)  The  Further  Development  of  the  Movements 
of  Life.  —  We  have  seen  religion,  even  in  its 
Universal  mode,  initiating  the  most  fertile  movements 
of  life.  But  these  movements  experience  the  most 
varied  hindrances  within  the  human  domain ;  they 
threatened  to  come  to  an  entire  deadlock  if  the  potency 
of  religion  does  not  strengthen  itself,  if  it  is  not  able, 
at  least,  to  carry  through  that  which  aspires  after  a 
Whole.  But  how  this  becomes  really  possible 
through  the  manifestation  of  an  absolute  inner  life 
will  now  be  briefly  explained. 

An  effort  after  Infinity  belongs  to  the  very  root  of 
religion,  but  the  world  of  man  withstood  such  an 
effort  in  a  harsh  and  hard  manner.  Striving  man  finds 
himself  not  only  hemmed  in  from  without ;  but  from 
within  also  he  is  tied  by  the  particularity  of  his  own 
nature,  and  its  own  psychic  potency  is  doled  out  to  it 
generally  parsimoniously  enough  by  destiny.  How 
can  he  escape  from  such  a  barrier,  and  how  can 
he  make  the  whole  of  life  his  own  real  life? 
He  is  able  to  accomplish  this  only  at  a  new  level 
where  the  pure  self-subsistence  of  reality  communi- 
cates itself  to  him,  and  awakens  within  him  a  new 
life.  In  this  life  of  pure  inwardness,  he  grasps  the 
whole  of  Infinity  as  his  own  possession,  and  his  life 
is  raised  above  all  the  hitherto-prevailing  barriers. 
This  is  done  first  in  an  inwardness  of  the  soul,  but  yet 
it  does  not  arise  out  of  a  purely  subjective  imagination, 
but  out  of  the  energy  of  a  new  cosmic  order — out  of  an 
All-life  subsisting  in  itself.     If,  thus,  our  life  anchors 


A   RELIGION   OF   A   DISTINCTIVE   KIND      445 

itself  in  the  inmost  point  of  Infinity,  it  will  be  able 
to  hold  fast  to  such  an  Infinity  in  the  midst  of  all 
hindrances. 

The  problem  of  freedom  is  closely  connected 
with  the  problem  of  infinity.  Life  had  to  insist 
upon  some  kind  of  freedom,  for  without  freedom, 
as  already  noticed,  there  is  no  originality,  no  personal 
life,  and  no  genuine  present  moment.  Religion, 
however,  became  the  best  advocate  of  freedom 
because  it  manifested  an  original  life  out  of  the 
Whole  over  against  the  concatenations  of  nature  and 
destiny.  But  such  a  life  of  the  whole  of  our  existence 
does  not  forge  its  way  right  through  the  hindrances, 
but  it  falls  right  in  its  inner  woof  under  the  power 
of  the  concatenations ;  and,  thus,  without  a  new 
start,  freedom  must  succumb  to  destiny.  Life 
gains  such  a  new  start  from  the  new  stage  of 
life  which  Characteristic  religion  inaugurates.  For 
here  new  beginnings  are  gained  over  against  one's 
own  psychic  potency;  and  in  this  domain  of  pure 
inwardness  even  that  is  not  lost  which  docs  not 
succeed  in  transposing  itself  into  visible  work  and 
achievement.  This  does  not  mean  that  a  faint  dis- 
position, in  the  form  of  a  merely  subjective  emotion. 
suffices — little  enough  is  gained  through  that  but 
the  presence  of  an  Absolute  Life  establishes  an 
activity  springing  from  pure  inwardness,  and  creates 
herewith  a  new  province  of  life  removed  from  the 
hindrances  of  the  world.  Through  the  consolidation 
of  this  province  of  life  the  domain  of  natural  causality 
does  not  simply  cease,  but  still  exercises  a  power  over 
the  very  soul  of  man.  But  if  has  lost  its  old  monopoly  ; 
man  is  now  able  to  withstand  its  exhausted  binding  and 


446  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

hemming  in  ;  lie  is  able  to  set  his  life  in  its  inmost 
depth  upon  his  own  act  and  upon  an  original  creative- 
ness,  and,  along  with  this,  to  drive  out  the  old  strange 
elements,  and  thus  to  bridge  the  chasm  which  other- 
wise lies  between  himself  and  his  own  soul. 

All  Spiritual  Life  is  here  a  struggle  against  the 
flux  of  time — an  ascent  to  eternal  and  immortal  truth. 
Because  religion  uplifts  things  into  a  Whole  and  a 
Principle,  it  executes  an  inversion  of  man's  first  view 
of  things.  But  we  have  already  seen  how  man's 
effort  after  truth  fell  under  the  power  of  time  and 
change,  and  how  this  called  forth  the  most  difficult 
entanglements  and  a  painful  anxiety,  so  that  ever 
anew  the  transient  presents  itself  in  the  garb  and  with 
the  claims  of  eternal  truth.  There  is  no  secure  over- 
coming of  time  and  no  consolidating  of  the  eternal 
through  the  ordinary  every-day  existence,  or  even 
through  the  surface-aspect  of  spiritual  things.  This 
achievement  is  possible  only  through  a  new  order 
which  reduces  our  whole  world  to  a  particular  kind 
or  aspect  of  reality.  I  n  this  new  order  life  may  gain 
a  timeless  character,  and  may  transform  itself  in  its 
inmost  depth  into  a  pure  sell-subsistence  and  into 
a  persistence  within  its  own  essence.  Characteristic 
religion  inaugurates  from  the  side  of  an  absolute  self- 
subsistence  an  emancipation  from  time ;  it  brings  calm 
and  consolidation  into  life;  hence  it  works  beyond 
one's  own  circle  for  the  maintenance  and  strengthening 
of  the  whole  effort  after  timeless  truth.  Wherever 
religion  acquired  full  energy  and  independence,  it  has 
scorned  being  driven  away  on  the  current  of  time  or 
being  curbed  by  the  fluctuating  situations  of  man- 
kind ;  rather  has  it  held  up  a  standard  against   the 


A   RELIGION   OF   A   DISTINCTIVE   KIND       447 

movements  of  time,  and  such  movements  had  to 
justify  themselves  before  such  a  standard ;  it  has 
worked  for  the  differentiation  of  the  transient  from 
the  permanent,  and  of  pretentious  culture  from 
spirituality.  But  if  religion  itself  falls  into  the 
entanglement,  it  finds  no  help  in  the  wavering  products 
of  time,  but  in  an  energetic  consciousness  of  the 
eternal  within  its  own  being — in  a  revivification  of 
its  indestructible  foundation  ;  and  it  is  this  power 
alone,  which  supports  religion  in  the  midst  of  the 
movements  of  time,  that  can  be  considered  by  it  as 
possessing  value.  Thus,  religion  has  held  up  the 
idea  of  eternity  present  in  human  life ;  it  has  estab- 
lished an  abode  for  life  in  itself  in  the  midst  of  all  the 
hurry  of  work,  and  has  founded  a  secure  rest  in  the 
midst  of  all  movement ;  along  with  this  it  has  given 
existence  a  depth,  and  has  upheld  a  constancy  of  life 
against  the  vacillations  of  time. 

The  aspiration  after  greatness  is,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  no  mere  outflow  of  vain,  overweening  pride  and 
self-mirroring.  Man  has  to  think  greatly  of  himself 
and  of  his  potency  when  he  pursues  his  own  task 
over  against  his  apparent  lostness  in  an  endless 
world,  and  is  to  forge  his  way  through  enormous 
oppositions.  Religion  gave  such  an  aspiration  a  solid 
ground  and  a  secure  support,  and  since  it  revealed 
the  presence  of  an  Absolute  Life  in  man  it  calls  him 
to  pursue  this  life  and  to  transform  its  entire  infinity 

into  his  own  possession.      But  man  could  not    succeed 
in   drawing  his   whole  domain   into   this   infinite   life; 

the   oppositions    threaten    to    overpower   him,   and 

crippling    doubt,    presses    him    down     into    littleness, 

In  order  to  get  beyond  this,  religion  must  establish  a 


448  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

new  depth  of  life,  and  it  accomplishes  this  through 
the  turn  to  Absolute  self-subsistence,  and,  further, 
through  the  ensuing  union  of  human  and  Divine  life. 
Man  is  here  removed  into  the  centre  of  reality ;  here 
he  has  to  reach  decisions  concerning  the  Whole; 
here  the  success  of  the  Whole  is  tied  to  his  decision  in 
so  far  as  the  vivification  cannot  occur  at  this  particular 
spot  without  his  own  deed,  and  this  deed  has  to  carry 
farther  the  movement  of  the  world.  Thus  the  deed 
has  gained  a  cosmic  character  and  cannot  possibly 
be  deemed  trivial.  Rather  does,  as  against  the  inner 
forming  and  building  of  reality  proceeding  here, 
all  that  the  external  view  of  things  exhibits,  all 
that  the  history  of  the  world  shows  in  sensuous 
results,  in  catastrophes  and  colossal  effects,  become 
merely  secondary.  Everything  has  now  a  true  value 
only  in  so  far  as  it  furthers  that  development ; 
and  for  the  best  minds  the  more  or  less  equally 
valid  environment  is  a  coming  and  going,  a  rising  and 
falling,  a  collecting  and  scattering,  of  human  things. 
Thus,  we  have  here  also  the  inversion  of  life  and  of 
values  which  is  characteristic  of  religion. 

Characteristic  religion,  in  all  this,  brings  the  stag- 
nant life  into  a  current.  It  does  this  not  so  much 
in  that  it  breaks  down  the  opposition,  as  in  that  it 
raises  the  life  throughout  above  the  domain  of  the 
opposition  ;  it  does  it  through  the  production  of  a 
new  characteristic  domain ;  but,  as  the  longing  for 
this  ideal  proceeded  from  out  the  Whole  of  life,  so 
also  will  its  satisfaction  re-act  upon  the  Whole  and 
strengthen  the  Whole. 

(cc)  Peculiar  Effects  of  Characteristic  Religion. — 
Our     previous     exposition     noticed    the    fact     that 


A   RELIGION   OF    A   DISTINCTIVE   KIND      449 

Characteristic  religion  not  merely  carries  on,  but  also 
brings  forth  something  new,  and  we  have  now  to  lay 
hold  of  some  of  the  peculiar  developments  of  this 
Xew.  And  here  again  there  is  nothing  astonishing 
to  be  expected — nothing  that  was  hitherto  alien 
to  us  ;  but  it  is  to  be  expected  that  phenomena 
which  hitherto  were  dispersed,  and  through  the  dis- 
persion remained  without  any  effect  within  the 
Whole,  now  connect  themselves  together,  and,  along 
with  this,  gain  a  new  significance  and  reveal  a  further 
development  of  the  Whole.  Religion  thus  appears 
as  the  power  which  teaches  man,  through  a  discovery 
of  the  connections  and  a  transposition  into  the  creative 
"  grounds,"  to  see  the  facts  as  a  Whole  and  to  grasp 
them  as  his  own.  Its  action,  viewed  externally,  may 
seem  to  emerge  only  on  the  horizon  of  life  and  to 
evade  all  precise  description.  Viewed  inwardly,  it 
accomplishes  an  inversion  of  life  which  pushes  all 
that  surrounds  man  with  manifold  abundance  and 
limited  form  to  a  secondary  place,  and  causes 
the  ascent  of  a  new  kind  of  life,  which  appears 
over  against  the  prior  life  as  the  fundamental 
depth,  and  which  transforms  the  entire  aspect  of 
reality. 

Religion  generally  comprehends  reality  as  a 
development  or  expression  of  a  total-life;  hut  it 
makes  a  great  difference  whether  sueli  a  total-life 
appears  as  effective  in  the  concatenation  of  the  Whole 
and  as  mediated  through  Hiis  to  the  individual  parts. 
or  whether  it  appears  as  immediately  presenl  in  the 
part,  and  ;is  directly  related  in  the  part.  The  former 
view    predominates    in    Universal    religion,   and    the 

latter  predominates  in  Characteristic   religion,     The 

29 


450  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

development  of  the  immediate  presence  of  the  Whole 
places  the  individual  in  possession  of  a  new  light, 
by  teaching  us  to  understand  such  light  as  an  ex- 
pression of  infinity — as  the  point  where  an  original 
and  self-subsisting  life  bursts  forth.  Through  this  a 
mode  of  reflection  arises  which  is  the  direct  opposite 
of  the  exact  scientific  mode  with  its  all-pervading 
connection  and  its  deduction  of  each  element  from  out 
of  the  series  to  which  it  belongs  ;  the  new  mode  cannot 
hope  to  eject  or  replace  this  scientific  mode,  but  it  is 
able  to  maintain  over  against  it  its  independence  and 
its  own  rights.  For  there  results  through  this  a  more 
intuitive  and  aesthetic  insight  which  cannot  possibly  be 
abandoned  in  our  consideration  of  the  whole  meaning 
of  the  universe.  The  individual  receives  here  an 
immense  enhancement  because  the  fact  is  grasped  as 
an  intimate  verification  of  an  inner  life  of  the  All — 
as  an  expression  of  Divine  glory ;  man  in  his  indi- 
viduality gains  along  with  this  a  self-subsistence,  a 
self  value,  an  inner  infinity,  and  all  this  becomes  an 
object  of  pure  insight  and  of  a  disinterested  de- 
votedness.  Here  Art  has  its  pre-eminent  task  and 
develops,  through  its  solution,  a  new  and  more  inward 
relationship  to  the  world  ;  "  it  does  not  raise  nature 
and  it  does  not  make  it  more  majestic  than  it  really 
is,  but  it  raises  human  nature  to  see  its  own  glory 
and  the  glory  of  the  world — it  helps  to  see  right 
through  the  confusion  of  the  external"  (Runeberg). 
Art  will  thus  see  and  honour  the  Divine  not  merely 
in  what  is  charming  and  harmonious,  but  also  in 
what  is  mighty  and  awful.  Would  not  such  an  inner 
verification  of  nature — such  an  inner  reflected  light 
of  the  spiritual  from  out  of  nature — be  an  unreality, 


A   RELIGION   OF   A   DISTINCTIVE   KIND      451 

and  could  it  therewith  unlock  such  an  immeasurable 
fulness  of  individuality,  if  the  reality  had  no  self- 
subsistence  and  no  inner  depth  ?  All  art  becomes 
a  testimony  to  such  a  depth.  But  such  an  insight 
into  the  infinite — such  an  intimate  apprehension  of 
the  infinite  in  the  particular  point — reaches  beyond 
all  art  into  the  whole  of  life ;  for  without  this,  life 
could  never  become  a  pure  self-life  and  never  attain  to 
a  full  present. 

Just  as  with  that  turn,  reflection  is  raised  above 
mere  causality,  so  also  is  action  raised  above 
merely  serviceable  activity  and  above  the  whole 
mechanism  of  ordinary  life.  It  is  only  through 
the  gain  of  an  inner  infinity  that  action  has  no 
need  to  be  ever  on  the  look-out  for  new  tasks  beyond 
the  position  attained  at  the  moment,  but  it  can  rest 
in  itself,  return  from  all  movements  to  itself  with- 
out falling  into  an  idle  inaction.  Herewith  there  opens 
out  a  sphere  of  inner  peace — the  calm  of  a  Sabbath 
rest  in  the  midst  of  all  the  tumult  and  struggle  of 
the  ordinary  surface-world.  Such  an  experience  is 
either  an  empty  delusion  and,  if  so,  we  are  the  entire 
slaves  of  a  restless  and  senseless  world-work,  or  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  ;i  self-subsistence  of  reality  which 
becomes  man's  own  possession. 

The  manifestation  of  such  self-subsistence  :is  is  re- 
presented by  religion  works  in  another  direction:  it 
Invests  life  with  ;i  greater  simplicity  and  child-likeness 
than  is  possible  through  social  relations.  For  where 
infinity  is  placed  over  again  si  the  individual,  the 
Individual's  dependence  upon  infinity,  lii^  relationship 

to  infinity,  and  liis  security  therein  an-  now  perceived. 

And   their  can  he  no  more  suitable  symbol  to  express 


452  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

this  than  the  life  of  a  little  child  with  the  simplicity 
of  its  feelings,  its  full  dependence  on  others,  its 
unconditioned  trust,  its  certain  expectation  of  help 
as  a  matter  of  course.  Life  appears  here  as  a  return 
from  a  painful  entanglement,  and  yet  there  results 
something  more  than  a  mere  return — there  results 
an  inner  renewal,  the  dawning  of  an  otherwise  locked- 
up  depth.  Religions  first  and  foremost  have  brought 
forth  such  a  spirit  to  development,  and  no  one  more 
than  Jesus  has  done  this.  The  reformers  of  education, 
too.  were  convinced  that  nowhere  is  man  more  him- 
self and  nearer  to  the  source  of  life  than  during 
the  tender  age  of  childhood,  and  hence  that  from 
such  a  source  a  rejuvenation  of  the  whole  life  can 
proceed.  Such  a  conviction  penetrates  the  life-work 
of  Froebel ;  and  Pestalozzi  chose  the  dispositions 
that  permeate  child-life  as  the  most  secure  point 
of  departure  for  the  cultivation  of  religion.  We 
quote  once  more  his  words  :  "  The  amazement  of 
the  sage  in  viewing  the  depth  of  creation  and  his 
search  in  the  abyss  for  the  Creator  are  not  the 
education  of  humanity  for  the  production  of  this 
belief.  In  the  abyss  of  creation  the  investigator 
loses  himself,  and  in  its  waters  he  can  only  drift 
about  aimlessly  far  away  from  the  source  of  a 
fathomless  sea."  "  Innocence  and  purity,  an  un- 
alloyed human  feeling  of  gratitude  and  love,  are  the 
source  of  faith.  In  the  pure  child-like  disposition  of 
mankind,  the  hope  of  eternal  life  wells  up,  and  the 
pure  faith  of  mankind  in  God  is  not  experienced  in 
its  energy  without  such  a  hope." 

These    various  traits    are   evidently  developments 
of    one    single     life.       Such    a    life     resists     being 


A   RELIGION   OF   A   DISTINCTIVE   KIND       453 

fastened  to  adj listed  conceptions,  and  can  reach  some 
representation  only  through  metaphors  and  parables. 
Yet  notwithstanding  this,  it  does  not  lose  its  power 
and  reality,  and  in  it  alone  is  man  able  to  gain  a 
secure  foothold  and  a  pure  self-subsistence  without 
which  his  whole  life  must  break  in  pieces.  Thus, 
there  culminates  here  something  indispensable  and 
urgent,  but,  at  the  same  time,  human  life  seems 
most  unready — posited  between  different  orders 
of  the  world,  and  moved  within  itself  by  sharp 
opposites.  But  the  movement  itself  is  the  most 
valid  testimony  that  the  whole  is  no  mere  fancy, 
and  religion  will  increase  this  assurance  because  it 
turns  the  matter  entirely  into  an  individual  concern, 
and  lets  the  world-problems  be  experienced  directly 
by  man.  But  religion  must  reflect  with  the  greatest 
possible  energy  as  to  how  to  differentiate  clearly 
between  the  new  life-content  and  all  the  mere  sub- 
jectivity which  seems  to  accompany  the  new  life  as 
a  shadow,  but  is  utterly  unable  to  produce  it  out 
of  its  own  capacity. 

(dd)  Retrospect.  -To  derive  the  proof  of  religion 
from  the  experience  of  (lie  Life-process  is  a  doctrine 
in  no  way  new.  For  from  of  old  the  raising  up  of  a 
new  life  was  the  main  achievement  of  religion  and  the 
most  convincing  proof  of  its  truth.  The  new  life  won 
the  soul  Mild  inclined  it  towards  the  imparted  in- 
struction and  not  \  ice  rc/s/i.  Hut.  however,  the  more 
religion  turned  into  Church  organisations,  the  more 
have    they  developed    their  doctrines  into   an  enclosed 

system,  and  the  more  have  they  considered  an 
acknowledgment  of  this  system  as  the  main  end.  and 
have  readily  treated  life  .-is  a  secondary,  and  doctrine 


1.54  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

as  the  primary,  thing.  It  is  difficult  to  avoid  sucli  a 
course  amongst  human  conditions,  but  it  contains  so 
many  dangers  and  engenders  so  many  abuses  that  a 
counter-action  is  ever  necessary  and  ever  important — a 
counter-effect  that  will  raise  life  out  of  any  and  every 
opportune  manifestation  to  the  level  of  a  principle. 
Such  a  turning  of  religion  into  doctrinal  conceptions 
brings  it  easily  into  a  condition  of  inertness  and 
cripples  man's  own  activity,  because  religion  is 
thus  conceived  as  something  ready-made  which 
stands  with  unconditional  authority  in  front  of 
man ;  whereas  if  religion  is  referred  to  life,  it 
appears  far  more  as  a  progressive  co-operative  work, 
and  set  as  a  task  from  without.  But  life  has  to 
struggle  gradually  for  its  content,  and  work  out  such 
a  content  with  increasing  clearness ;  it  must  ever 
ascend,  ever  draw  reality  more  and  more  into  itself 
and  grow  along  with  it.  And,  further,  the  setting  of 
religion  in  doctrinal  ideas  can  result  onlyin  definite  con- 
nection with  the  momentary  situation  of  culture  ;  thus 
there  is  found  in  religion  a  temporal  and  problematic 
element  which  easily  treats  itself  as  the  main  fact ; 
and  the  violence  which  the  main  fact  experiences 
tli rough  the  advancement  of  culture  turns  easily  into 
an  assault  upon  religion,  and  causes  it  to  appear  far 
more  insecure  than  it  really  is ;  religion  steps  thus 
into  immense  entanglements  because  it  is  not  able  to 
carry  on  the  struggle  from  the  point  where  it  is  truly 
strong. 

Such  and  other  abuses  have  for  centuries  pressed 
men  to  put  life,  which  in  reality  has  ever  decided, 
first  also  in  the  consciousness  and  activity  of 
mankind,     and     to      work      out      its      implications 


A    RELIGION    OF    A    DISTINCTIVE    KIND       455 

with  all  possible  clearness.  The  Reformation  and 
Pietism  acted  thus :  Pascal  and  Schleiermacher 
did  the  same ;  and  the  present  day  demands  such 
an  achievement  with  special  insistence.  But  at 
the  same  time,  history  shows  the  great  danger  and 
entanglement  connected  with  such  an  effort.  The 
turn  to  life  which  shall  energise  the  whole  sinks  easily 
into  mere  subjectivity,  and  this  is  certainly  unable  to 
give  religion  either  a  secure  foundation  or  an  original 
content,  and  consequently  an  evaporation  and  a 
dissolution  of  religion  become  unavoidable.  It  is, 
then,  necessary  to  raise  life  beyond  its  usual  vagueness. 
to  discover  within  it  inner  connections,  and  indeed,  the 
source  of  a  reality ;  and,  further,  to  loosen  life  from 
merely  isolated  aspects  and  to  invest  it  with  a  self- 
reliance  as  well  as  with  a  cosmic  character.  We  have 
already  sought  to  show  this  through  the  turn  to  the 
Spiritual  Life  and  its  clear  differentiation  from  the 
empirical  psychic  life  with  its  "  given  "  existence  :  and 
our  whole  investigation  stands  or  tails  with  the 
acknowledgment  of  the  Spiritual  Life.  We  in 
modern  times  have  long  given  up  the  attempt  to 
found  religion  upon  an  investigation  of  the  world, 
because  theworld  itself  has  become  far  too  much  of  a 
problem  for  us,  and  consequently  we  flee  to  man  as 
our  starting-point  in  the  development  of  life.  But 
man  in  his  empirical  existence  is  Par  too  petty  and 
eon  lined  to  be  able  through  his  own  potencies  to  sel  up 
against  the  boundless  world  a  new  and  elevated  world  ; 
and  thus  religion  threatens  to  become  a  mere  radiation 

of  Subjective  human  Craving  and  fancy,  and  its  entire 
world  threatens  t<>  sink  down  In  a  dream  world.  \<> 
amount    of    shrewdness   or   ;icunien    e.in    prevent    this 


4o«  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

issue  if  man  is  no  more  than  the  first  impressions  show 
him  to  be,  if  there  is  not  present  within  him  a  really- 
subsisting  All- Life  which  enables  him  more  and  more 
to  brinu-  about  an  inversion  of  his  natural  existence. 
But  this,  however,  is  a  question  of  fact  and  not  of 
argument ;  therefore  our  main  investigation  directed 
itself  to  the  tracing  of  such  facts.  Because  we  con- 
vinced ourselves  that  things  were  so,  we  gained  the 
standpoint  of  spiritual  experience  over  against  a  merely 
psychological  standpoint.  For  the  latter  standpoint 
occupies  itself  with  purely  psychic  processes,  and  in 
the  province  of  religion  especially  it  occupies  itself 
with  the  conditions  of  the  stimulations  of  will  and 
feeling,  which  are  not  able  to  prove  anything  beyond 
themselves.  The  spiritual  experience,  on  the  con- 
trary, has  to  do  with  life's  contents  and  with  the  con- 
struction of  reality  ;  it  need  not  trouble  itself  concern- 
ing the  connections  of  the  world  only  in  a  subsidiary 
manner,  because  it  stands  in  the  midst  of  such 
connections,  and  without  these  it  cannot  possibly 
exist.  Man  never  succeeds  in  reaching  the  Divine 
unless  the  Divine  works  and  is  acknowledged  in  his 
own  life ;  what  is  omitted  here  in  the  first  step  is 
never  again  covered,  and  becomes  more  and  more 
impossible  as  life  proceeds  on  its  merely  natural 
course.  If,  however,  the  standpoint  of  spiritual  ex- 
perience is  gained,  then  religion  succeeds  in  attaining 
entire  certainty  and  immediacy  ;  then  the  struggles  in 
which  it  was  involved  turn  into  a  similar  result,  and 
its  own  inner  movements  become  a  testimony  for 
the  reality  of  the  new  world  which  it  represents. 


A    RELIGION    OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIM)      457 

3.  Religion  in  its  Relation  to  Society  and  History 

Religion  hitherto  has  been  noticed  as  governing  in 
the  domain  of  the  invisible — it  was  a  life  of  pure 
inwardness.  But  it  is  not  able  to  affect  energetically 
the  immediate  existence  of  man  and  humanity  unless 
it  succeeds  in  coming  into  visibleness  and  in  adopting 
a  solid  organisation,  and  these  in  their  turn  will 
appeal  to,  and  will  support  themselves  by  means  of 
special  historical  events.  But  immense  entangle- 
ments result  through  religion  entering  into  definite 
relationship  with  society  and  history,  and  also  on 
account  of  the  fact  that  religion  had  to  substantiate 
its  truth  and  reality  within  the  domain  of  the  visible. 

The  invisible  and  eternal,  upon  which  all  the  claims 
of  religion  in  its  foundation  rest,  steps  into  strange 
conditions  within  the  domain  of  the  visible;  and 
easily  enough  in  these  human  conditions,  those  things 
which  should  serve  as  mere  representation  and  orienta- 
tion compete  eagerly  amongst  themselves  for  independ- 
ence; they  raise  themselves  up  as  main  lads,  and 
through  such  a  subversion  they  work  directly  againsl 
the  final  aims  of  religion.  As  everywhere,  the  main 
danger  here  does  not  come  from  enemies  bu1  from 
friends-  from  erring  friends.  Simultaneously,  the 
configuration  within  the  visible  world  leads  easily 
through  such  a  turn  into  a  contraction  of,  and  a  menace 

to,  the  other  provinces  of  life,  and  I  he  contradiction 
which  these  call  forth  easily  impels  to  a  rejection  of 
religion  itself;  and  thus  religion  has  to  sutler  for  the 
presumption  and  usurpation  oftheChurch.  Nothing 
has  carried    into   religion   so   much  confusion    from 

within  and  so  mueli  contradiction   from  without   as  its 


458  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

own  visible  incorporation — as  that  which  intended  to 
serve  it,  and  which  religion  seems  unable  to  abandon. 

(a)   The  Problem  of  the  Church. 

[ad)  The  Necessity  of  a  Religious  Organisation.- 
Religion  in  its  Universal  mode  works  for  an  inner 
fellowship  of  mankind,  but  it  does  not  press 
for  a  hard  and  fast  organisation.  The  desire  for 
organisation  arises  only  when  the  opposition  of 
our  world  to  the  Spiritual  Life  has  been  deeply 
felt,  and  when,  over  against  this  opposition,  a 
new  stage  of  life  has  succeeded  in  obtaining 
recognition.  For  not  only  is  the  new  stage  of  the 
religion  of  a  pure  self-subsistence  much  more  difficult 
to  apprehend  and  to  retain,  but  in  its  presence  the 
inability  of  man  becomes  far  more  evident.  How 
can  individuals  be  roused  out  of  the  indifference  of 
the  mechanism  of  daily  life,  and  how  can  they  be 
brought,  out  of  the  chaos  of  opinions,  into  common 
convictions  unless  some  solid  organisation  raises 
and  stimulates  and  unites  them  ?  He  who  denies 
the  need  for  such  a  turning  must  either  think  very 
little  of  religion  or  very  highly  of  man.  If  religion 
is  no  more  than  an  artistic  and  delicate  worldly 
disposition — a  mere  embrace  of  infinity  in  the  exulting 
feeling  of  happiness  and  success — or,  on  the  other 
hand,  if  man  is  held  as  from  the  outset  filled  with 
spiritual  interests  and  in  his  intimate  consciousness 
securely  turned  to  high  aims,  then  religion  needs  no 
kind  of  strengthening  through  fellowship.  But  where 
the  greatness  of  the  task  and  the  littleness  of  man 
are  present  to  the  mind,  some  kind  of  incorporation 
of  religion  is  not  so  easily  rejected. 


A    RELIGION    OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIND       459 

The  fact  that  Characteristic  religion  first  awakens 
such  an  aspiration  for  fellowship  does  not  signify  that  it 
alone  is  able  to  satisfy  it.  Religion  is  not  well  able 
to  develop  an  independent  circle  of  life  without  falling 
back  upon  its  Universal  mode  and  calling  up  also  the 
whole  energy  of  this.  Such  a  circle  of  life  dare  not 
contract  into  a  mere  refuge  from  the  exigencies  of  life, 
but  it  has  to  consolidate  the  whole  of  life,  and  to  shield 
it  from  dangers  of  an  inner  dissolution.  Characteristic 
religion  is  able,  as  we  have  already  noticed,  to  develop 
genuinely  its  spiritual  nature  and  defend  itself  against 
the  intrusion  of  mere-human  elements,  only  if  it 
occupies  that  broader  foundation.  Since  religion  is  to 
open  out  to  man's  nature  the  entire  depth  of  reality 
over  against  empirical  existence,  the  Church  seems 
indispensable  in  order  to  introduce  and  to  hold  at 
hand  the  new  world  and  the  new  life  to  man  in  the 
midst  of  his  ordinary  existence;  it  is  indispensable 
in  order  to  fortify  the  conviction  and  to  strengthen 
the  energy  in  the  midst  of  all  the  opposite  collisions; 
it  is  indispensable  in  order  to  uphold  an  eternal  truth 
and  a  universal  problem  in  the  midst  of  the  changes 
of  time  and  the  fleetingness  of  the  moment.  In  fact, 
the  development  of  independent  religions  societies 
causes  in  human  relationships  divergences  which  un- 
doubtedly have  many  dangers  and  abuses,  bul  there 
has  gone  forth  from  such  societies  a  great  enrichment 
and    emancipation    of    life    whose    withdrawal    would 

mean  a  loss  hardly  bearable. 

I hl>)  Th^  Dangers  of  a  Religious  Organisation. 

( )ur  consideration  of  the  historical  religions  has  already 

placed    before    us    clearly    the    dangers    of   a    religious 
organisation.       It     is    now   only   necessary   to   raise   to 


460  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

the  level  of  a  principle  that  which  was  visible  in  those 
religions,  and  to  set  it  in  a  closer  relation  to  the 
religion  of  the  Spiritual  Life. 

The  religion  of  the  Spiritual  Life  maintains  with 
special  energy  that  religion  is  in  no  way  that  which 
simply  adorns  mere-human  existence,  but  that  within 
it  an  elevated  life  is  opened  out — that  it  not  merely 
annexes  some  kind  of  embroidery  to  a  "  given  "  world. 
Now  the  attempt  to  make  such  a  new  world  to  attain  re- 
presentation within  the  old  one  contains  a  fundamental 
contradiction  which  can  never  be   smoothly  solved. 
The  temporal  and  the  human,  beyond  which  religion 
will  rise,  unavoidably  aspire  after  power ;  even  these 
exercise  a  counter-effect  to  the  work  of  the  ordinary 
and  commonplace  ;  the  Church  must  speak  not  only 
to  spiritually  distinguished  souls,  but  must  speak  to 
all ;  and  it  must  speak  every  day  and  not  merely  in 
moments  of  elevated  feeling  ;  it  must  reckon  through- 
out with  human  nature  and  human  weakness.     Thus, 
the   Church,   measured   by  the  standard  of  religion, 
will    appear    very    inadequate.      But    what    is    dis- 
covered within  the  Church  as  limits  and  defects  has 
been   long  fought  against,  and  at  present  causes  no 
real  danger  because  the  organisation   is  incessantly 
drawn  back  upon  an  inspiring  life,  and  because  the 
Church  feels  and  conducts  itself  as  a  mere  servant  of 
religion.       But   in    human    and  historical   conditions 
there  is  a  constant  temptation  to  make  the  Church 
the  main  fact,  and  to  degrade  religion  to  a  mere  means 
for   its    power  and  glory  ;   through  this  the  human, 
the  temporal,  and  the  finite  gain  power  within  religion, 
and,  indeed,  above  religion  ;  immense  abuses  originate, 
and  then  a  struggle  against  the  Church  may  become 


A    RELIGION    OF    A    DISTINCTIVE    KIND       4(il 

an  imminent  concern  of  religion — it  may  become  a 
struggle  for  the  self-preservation  of  religion.  What 
perversion  this  positing  of  the  human  into  the  place 
of  the  Divine  brings  along  with  itself  shall  here  be 
shown  in  at  least  some  points. 

Religion  is  unable  to  attain  to  a  visible  form 
without  the  work  of  special  personalities  in  its 
service,  and  consequently  the  sublimity  of  religion 
will  confer  upon  these  personalities  a  certain  splen- 
dour. But,  however,  this  fact  easily  takes  a  turn  : 
the  man  who  busies  himself  with  the  Divine  claims 
for  himself  the  honour  due  to  the  Divine  alone: 
the  servant  becomes  a  priest,  and  places  himself  as 
mediator  between  man  and  God,  and  therewith  injures 
the  kernel  of  all  religion— injures  the  intimate  partici- 
pation in  the  Divine  Life.  In  the  extreme  develop- 
ment of  this,  the  priesthood  can  claim  power  above  that 
of  the  Godhead  :  thus  the  Brahmanic  priest,  through 
his  sacrifices  and  incantations,  seemed  to  subdue  the 
very  gods  themselves;  and  in  perilous  nearness  t<» 
this  lies  the  mass  in  the  Roman  doctrine.  It  is  but 
natural  that  the  power  of  the  priest  should  be  con- 
sidered as  having  been  conferred  upon  him  by  the 
Godhead,  but  the  usage  of  the  Church  places  the 
priest  in  the  very  foreground  ;  it  is  the  priesl  who 
possesses  t he  truth  and  has  the  safety  of  man  in  his 
bauds,  and  who  finally  aspires  after  Divine  honour 
.•Hid  imagines  himself  able  to  pule  oxer  the  grace  of 
God. 

Religion  is  able  to  create  an  organisation  only  with 
the  consolidation  of  a  world  of  ideas,  and  this  results 
unavoidably  in  ;i  narrowing  of  religion.     The  si  rue 
ture    of  ill'-  Church    w;is  achieved    :it    ;i    particular 


462  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

juncture;  this  juncture  had  particular  spiritual  needs 
whose  satisfaction  preceded  and  drove  back  all  other 
claims.  Therefore  particular  central  truths  stand  out 
from  such  a  world  of  ideas  and  group  themselves  together 
and  all  others  around  themselves  ;  they  succeed  in  the 
course  of  centuries  in  enforcing  themselves  with  ten- 
acious energy,  and  more  and  more  aim  at  governing 
the  total  intellectual  world  of  the  Church.  This  has 
happened  for  instance  in  connection  with  the  ancient 
Christian  doctrine  of  the  G  odhead  of  Christ  and  with  that 
of  the  Sacraments  in  the  Middle  Ages.  Such  a  taper- 
ing and  a  locking-up  of  the  world  of  ideas  is  less  serious 
so  long  as  an  invisible  world  of  religion  counteracts 
it,  and  puts  the  assertion  of  the  Church  within  a  more 
encompassing  truth.  But  such  a  counteraction  fails 
within  the  Church  especially  in  times  of  greater  lassi- 
tude and  narrowness,  for  then  the  narrow  thought- world 
of  the  Church  becomes  the  thought- world  of  religion, 
and  then  the  perils  and  injuries  of  such  a  narrowing 
come  to  full  effect.  On  the  one  side,  wre  find  an  iron 
logic  which  develops  the  governing  main  truths  into 
such  conclusions  as  the  adherents  hold  easily  to  be  a 
testimony  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  On  the  other  side,  we 
find  much  non-logic,  because  the  conclusions  of  the 
iron-logic  tend  to  break  down  when  they  are  face  to 
face  with  unquestionable  religious  needs  ;  and,  further, 
such  a  logic  proceeds  only  in  a  special  direction 
and  not  slant-wise — and  hence  it  tolerates  all  kinds 
of  contradictions  in  the  juxtaposition  of  ideas  and 
tasks — contradictions  which,  once  they  are  dis- 
covered, become  intolerable.  But  the  Churches 
offer  this  circle  of  ideas  with  all  their  one-sided- 
ness    as  the  absolute   and   final    truth,    and    aim    at 


A   RELIGION   OF   A    DISTINCTIVE   KIND      463 

imposing  it  upon  individuals  with  coercive  authority. 
Can  we  wonder  that  an  opposition  arises  against 
all  this  ?  Can  we  wonder  if  the  various  ideas 
of  the  Church,  with  all  their  peculiarities,  clash 
severely  with  each  other,  and  cannot  possibly  come 
to  terms  ?  For  each  of  these  ideas  views  the 
world  from  its  own  individual  standpoint,  and 
declares  such  a  view  as  the  only  possible  one ; 
each  at  the  outset  places  itself  in  such  a  position 
that  it  sees  clearly  only  in  certain  directions,  whilst 
in  other  directions  even  the  clearest  things  become 
dark  to  it. 

Now,  as  the  main  proof  of  religion  lies  in  its 
own  actuality  — in  the  creation  of  a  new  reality 
of  independent  Spiritual  Life — so  also  the  Church 
proves  the  right  of  its  existence  through  the  greatness 
of  its  achievement  in  the  midst  of  an  alien  and  hostile 
world.  The  Church  is  no  mere  system  of  doctrines 
which  has  been  produced  by  scientific  reasons,  and 
which  can  be  convulsed  and  dissolved  ;  but  as 
an  organisation  of  life  the  Church  has  brought 
the  supersensuous  world  to  some  kind  of  con- 
crete expression  ;  it  has,  through  its  training  of 
souls  and  the  formation  of  relationships,  gained 
an    actuality,   and    acts,    from   out    of    this  actuality, 

with  a  power  above  all  argument.      But   this  actu 

alily  claims,  as  religious,  to  be  not  merely  sonic 
sort    of  actuality;    it    must    represent    the   final   depth 

of  reality;    it    must   contain   absolute   truth.     And 

here    again    a    danger    threatens  all    this:    thai    what 
has    its    rights   only    in    reference    back    l<»   the    In 
visible    presents    itself   as    sovereign,   and    believes 
its  truth   to   be   established  by  the  bare   weighl  of 


464  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

its  existence  and  the  empirical  actuality  of  its  achieve- 
ments. True,  the  Church  appeals  in  this  to  the  lead- 
ing of  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  it  makes  bold  to  determine 
where  and  how  the  Holy  Spirit  governs,  and,  along 
with  this,  it  takes  upon  itself  to  judge  concerning 
truth  and  error,  and  again  raises  the  human  above 
the  Divine.  Thus  it  is  the  authority  of  the  Church 
which  is  to  assure  man  of  the  truth  ;  where  the  Church 
unites  in  a  common  conviction,  there  an  absolute 
truth  is  supposed  to  have  been  won ;  where  the 
Church  constructs  a  tradition,  an  eternal  duration 
seems  secured.  Now,  in  the  long  run,  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  much  that  is  human  has  worked  in  all  this, 
and  that  with  the  fixation  of  alleged  divine  truths  this 
became  so  earthly  that  the  serene  halo  vanishes  with 
the  insight  that  the  sanction  of  such  truths  was  far  more 
of  human  than  of  Divine  origin.  Thus,  the  doubt 
concerning  the  Church  passes  easily  into  a  doubt 
concerning  religion  itself,  and  the  domain  of  religion 
will  easily  appear  as  a  mere  web  of  human  illusions. 
A  thousandfold  experience  shows  that  where  the 
religious  conviction  of  man  rested  mainly  upon  the 
authority  of  the  Church  and  did  not  proceed  from 
his  own  life,  any  injury  to  this  basis  led  easily  to 
a  renunciation  of  the  whole — to  an  entire  negation 
and  indifference.  If  once  the  Church  had  taken  over 
entirely  the  solicitude  for  truth,  and  if  man's  entire 
convictions  and  conscience  depended  on  a  union  with 
the  Church,  the  relaxation  of  such  a  union  could 
not  but  take  away  from  him  all  fixed  principles,  and 
could  not  but  surrender  his  soul  to  entire  emptiness. 
The  champions  of  ecclesiastic  authority  are  ac- 
customed to  insist  that  human  nature  will  fall  into 


A    RELIGION    OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIND      465 

an  entangled  chaos  without  a  strong  authoritative 
binding,  and  that  it  needs  for  its  own  welfare  a  strong 
control.  Against  this  view  let  us  take  the  following 
course.  The  Spiritual  Life  itself  causes  a  union  of 
mankind  from  within,  and  holds  men  also  in  visible 
connections  in  the  general  situation  of  culture,  in 
art  and  science,  in  society  and  the  state.  Without 
such  a  union  from  within  all  the  external  union 
would  become  a  mere  constraint  ;  and,  further,  if 
all  agreement  were  a  work  of  authority,  every  deviation 
would  mean  the  upheaval  of  the  whole,  and  that 
could  in  no  manner  be  tolerated,  but  would  have 
to  be  repressed  with  the  severest  disciplinary  punish- 
ment;  so  that  courts  of  inquisition  and  persecution 
of  heretics  were  not  only  just  but  an  unavoidable 
duty.  However,  that  mode  of  thinking  which  took 
upon  itself  to  decide  that  man  had  an  alleged  need 
beyond  what  religion  itself  testifies,  fell  finally  into 
a  crass  and  unworthy  utilitarianism.  Utilitarian 
considerations  may  possess  a  right  in  other  situations, 
but  in  connection  with  the  question  of  absolute  truth, 
they  signify  a  lowering  of  the  matter  and  an  entire 
subversion.  The  atheist  in  his  denial  of  religion 
thinks  more  religiously  than  the  utilitarian  who 
turns  the  Divine  into  ;i  mere  means  of  human 
welfare. 

Finally,  the  prominence  of  the  Church  causes inevil 
ably   ;ui    externalising    of    the    religious   life.     The 
organisation  has  to  stand   upon  visible  proofs  of  life 

and    to   come    to   expression    through    such    proofs ;    it 

will  develop  and  hold  forth  certain  doctrines:  it  will 

value  and   desire   certain    activities;   and    through   all 

this  connection  it  will  develop  :i  characteristic  web  of 

80 


466  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

life.  So  long  as  the  organisation  is  drawn  hack  ener- 
getically upon  the  fundamental  life  of  religion  and 
is  vivified  and  held  together  through  religion,  all 
dangers  to  it  can  be  fought  against  and  overcome ; 
but  if  the  Church  drives  back  religion,  and  ensnares 
the  whole  life  in  the  web  of  its  system  of  ordinances, 
the  life  is  in  danger  of  being  transformed  entirely 
into  a  comparative  number  of  deeds,  and  transferred 
into  the  shallows  of  a  most  industrious  mechanism. 
Then  the  fatal  conception  of  "  religious  obligations  " 
arises,  which  places  the  religious  task  on  a  level 
with  social,  political  and  other  obligations,  without 
discovering  at  all  how  deeply  such  a  turn  degrades 
religion,  and  how  soulless  it  moulds  the  life.  There 
is  here  no  possibility  of  a  compromise  of  this  kind 
—that  a  subordination  of  religion  to  ecclesiastical 
authority  and  the  possession  of  an  inwardness  of 
disposition  can  be  simultaneously  preserved — but  the 
fact  stands  here  upon  an  inexorable  Either- — Or. 
Where  the  truth  is  presented  from  the  external, 
the  inner  life  is  unable  to  gain  entire  self-reliance ; 
where  the  inner  life  has  gained  such  self-reliance, 
it  will  survey  the  external  by  its  own  necessities 
and  shape  it  to  its  own  demands ;  and  it  must  reject 
any  constraining  leadership  as  an  inadmissible  bond- 
age. Freedom  and  inwardness  are  ever  inseparable  ; 
and  he  who  will  not  accept  the  perils  of  freedom, 
must  for  good  or  evil  renounce  an  independent 
inwardness  and  a  genuine  personality.  Life  can 
possess  but  one  centre  of  gravity,  and  this  lies 
either  within  the  invisible  inner  world,  and,  if  so, 
within  the  soul ;  or  within  the  visible  and,  thus, 
outside  the  soul  ;  and  it  is  only  a  confused  mode  of 


A    RELIGION   OF   A    DISTINCTIVE   KIND      4(>7 

thinking  that  attempts  to  find  a  mid-path  between 
this  Either — Or.  It  may  be  that  a  certain  inward- 
ness develops  from  the  external  binding,  but  it 
remains  a  dejected,  weak  and  sentimental  inwardness, 
and  does  not  become  the  sanctuary  of  a  new  life  and 
the  carrier  of  a  new  world. 

The  dangers  of  such  an  alleged  superiority  of  the 
Church  over  religion  vary  in  different  times  ;  they 
adjust  themselves  essentially  according  to  the  position 
which  religion  itself  occupies  in  the  whole  of  Spiritual 
Life.  If  religion  stands  in  close  connection  with 
Spiritual  Life,  and,  if  new  energy  and  animation  How 
constantly  into  it,  then  it  is  able  to  hold  a  counter- 
balance to  the  expansion  of  the  power  of  the  Church  : 
but  if  such  a  connection  has  been  loosened  and  the 
whole  situation  has  become  insecure,  religion  has 
to  seek  support  in  the  Church,  and  thus  the 
prominence  of  the  Church  and  the  rank  growth  of 
the  merely  human  are  hardly  to  be  avoided.  Hut 
the  Church  will  then  fail  in  great  ncss  of  errat  i\  eness, 
and  it  need  not  wonder  if  the  age  sees  in  it  more  of 
the  human  than  of  the  Divine. 

(re)  The  Reconstruction  of  a  Religious  Organisa- 
tion. In  connection  with  the  Church,  the  dangers 
and    defects    have    hitherto    largely    occupied    our 

attention.  Hut  the  fact  should  by  no  means  he 
overlooked,  how  much  greatness  the  Church  lias 
hrouffhl    forth    in    the   midst    of  all    its   mistakes,  how 

it  has  strengthened  the  soul,  and  how  it   lias  given 

some  kind  of  drift  towards  supcrsensuous  \alues. 
Wha1    the   historical    view  within    this   domain   shows 

in  the  way  of  tangible  events  is  usually  unedifying 
enough,  and  seems  fully  to  justify  the  severe  judgment 


468  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

of  Goethe  concerning  Church  history.  Hut  it  does  not 
show  what  entered  into  the  souls  of  men,  what  led 
them  to  noble  incentives,  what  brought  them  peace 
and  happiness,  and  what  upheld  them  in  temptation 
and  tribulation.  He  who  takes  this  into  consideration 
will  be  secure  against  a  sweeping  condemnation  of 
the  Church,  and  he  will  not,  with  its  mistakes,  com- 
bat the  real  achievements  of  the  Church  itself. 

Such  a  course  will  not  be  taken  especially  because  the 
character  of  the  religious  organisation  is  not  allotted 
to  us  as  a  rigid  destiny,  but  was  changed  in  the  past 
and  can  be  further  changed.  So  that  we  should 
not  simply  abandon  the  Church  because  the  present 
character  of  the  Church  displeases  us,  but  strive 
according  to  the  best  of  our  ability  to  bring  about 
a  transformation.  The  following  points  would  seem 
to  be  necessary  in  such  a  transformation. 

1.  In  the  first  place,  all  coercion  with  regard  to 
men's  attitude  towards  the  Church  should  disappear, 
and  entire  freedom  should  obtain  of  joining  this  or 
that  Church  or  no  Church  at  all.  Earlier  times  felt 
the  unworthiness  of  a  compulsion  in  this  respect  less 
than  it  is  felt  to-day ;  at  the  present  time  the  con- 
sciousness of  this  has  awakened  to  full  clearness;  hence, 
in  such  a  situation,  it  must  directly  injure  religion, 
and  turn  the  Church  from  being  a  fellowship  of  "  holy 
people  "  to  being  an  apathetic  community  if  men  are 
held  fast  to  it  through  a  stronger  or  softer  pressure. 
At  this  point  again  we  see  how  religion  is  threatened 
with  greater  injury  from  unwise  friends  than  from 
open  enemies. 

2.  Further,  more  freedom,  more  movement  and 
individuality  are  necessary  within  the  Church.     We 


A    RELIGION   OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIND        t69 

refer  herewith  especially  to  the  difference  between  a 
more  universal  and  a  more  characteristic  disposition 
in  religion.  The  latter  first  drove  men  to  a  Church 
organisation  and,  in  such  an  organisation,  naturally 
maintains  the  foreground.  But  what  it  discerns  and  de- 
fends as  the  final  result  of  the  experience  of  life  should 
not  be  imposed  uniformly  upon  all  individuals,  and 
should  not  be  expected  from  them  as  their  confession. 
And  especially  should  it  not  dominate  the  teaching  of 
the  young  save  to  beckon  them  to  it  as  to  a  Holy  of 
Holies  in  the  distance,  and  to  assist  them  by  way  of 
suggestion  to  become  conscious  of  a  veiled  mystery, 
but  on  no  account  should  aspiring  minds  in  their  joyous 
fulness  of  life  be  distressed  and  grieved.  How  can 
every  man  and  every  child  feel  what  such  a  mightily 
contrasted  nature  as  Luther's  with  all  its  convulsive 
experiences  felt?  Such  an  obtrusion  injures  re- 
ligion because  it  incites  a  strong  ill-will  against 
religion;  it  injures  life  because  life  becomes  thus 
accustomed  to  an  unreality  of  feeling,  as  though  to 
something  self-evident. 

.">.  [n  order  to  obtain  a  true  reconstruction  of  the 
religious  organisation,  if  is.  before  all  else,  needful  to 
discern  rightly  the  characteristic  content  of  religion. 

Religion  brings   to   man  not  some  kind   of  trimmings 

of  life  but  the  depth  of  life  itself  the  positing  of  man 
within  the  nucleus  of  things,  within  a  self-subsisting 

reality.       Religion     in    the    first    place    is    life,    hn!    life 

Mot    in   the  customary  sense  of  a  mere  relationship 

of  things  to  a  sentienl  Subjed  ;  but  il  is  a  Spiritual 
Life  in    the    fullest    sense  of  the    term      life   of  an    en 

tirely  active  kind  which   develops  a    reality   out    of 

itself,  and   which  is    presenl   as  a   Whole  in  each    sitUfl 


470  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

tion.     Hut  such  a  life  is  entirely  of  an  invisible  kind 
and  lies  beyond  all  the  differences  of  psychic  activity. 
The  religious  organisation  is  not  able  to  place  itself  in 
the  service  of  such  a  life  unless  it  is  constantly  re- 
ferred back  to  religion  as  the  source  of  this  life.     The 
Church    has   therefore   the    task,    not    so    much   to 
propagate  this  or  that  doctrine,  and  not  to  set  forth 
this  or  that  particular  mode  of  activity,  but,  in  the 
midst  of  all  the  ramifications  of  activities,  to  point  to 
the  Spiritual  Life,  to  set  forth  the  conditions  of  its 
development,  and  to  represent  it  amidst  another  kind 
of  world  to  the  best  of  its  ability.     It  has  through 
its  convictions  to  penetrate  into  an  acknowledgment 
of  this    Spiritual   life  and  its    new  and  all-essential 
reality,  and  regard  it  as  conclusive.     True,  there  lie 
in   all   this   assertions   concerning   the  whole  of  the 
world — indeed,  a   Weltanschauung — but   it  makes   a 
great   difference   whether   such  a  view  is  developed 
from  what  has  been  assimilated  by  a  genuine  life  and 
is  carried  continuously  by  one's  own  act,  or  whether 
the   view    is   offered   us   independently  of  our   own 
act   and    spiritual   experiences,   and    whether   life   is 
to  develop  from  out  of  itself.     It  is  not   doctrines 
in  the  main,  but  mere  dogmas  severed  from  life  and 
through   the   severance    spinning    further    doctrines 
— it    is    this   that   constitutes    an    evil   in   religion. 
How  much  of  all  this  is  included  in  the  traditional 
organisation  of  Christianity  !     What  significance,  for 
instance,  has  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  to  the  re- 
ligious life — a  doctrine  which  only  a  philosophically 
educated  fraction  of  believers  can  somewhat  understand 
and  estimate  its  motives  ?     And  if  Christian  dogmas 
on  one  side  bring  far  too  much,  on  another  side  they 


A    RELIGION   OF   A    DISTINCTIVE   KIND       n 

bring  far  too  little.  For  instance,  they  have  not  a 
single  word  of  appreciation  for  the  developing  and 
original  Spiritual  Life  with  its  new  configuration  and 
fundamental  relationship  to  God,  found  in  the  life 
and  being  of  Jesus.  So  that  often  the  subsidiary 
facts  become  the  main  facts,  and  the  main  facts  the 
subsidiary  ones.  The  age  of  the  Reformation  dis- 
covered this  fact  very  clearly,  but  it  did  not  bring 
things  to  a  victorious  issue ;  but  religion  will  never 
succeed  in  engendering  a  new  life  until  such  a  change 
and  issue  have  come  about. 

Such  a  presentation  of  the  Spiritual  Life  will  by 
no  means  efface  all  differences ;  it  will  rather  enhance 
than  contract  the  fundamental  differences  of  minds. 
Also,  according  to  our  investigation,  religion  is  in  no 
manner  a  collection  of  all  kinds  of  facts;  it  cannot 
present  its  new  world  without  culminating  in  a 
differentiation  in  regard  to  the  qualities  within  (he 
mind  and  spirit  of  man  ;  it  is  able  to  serve  the  char- 
acteristic power  and  genuineness  of  the  entire  Spiritual 
Life  only  when  such  a  differentiation  within  the  soul 
results,  and  it  attempts  to  do  this  in  the  midst  of  the 
spiritual  torpor  and  inertia  of  our  day.  The  differen- 
tiation touches  a  point  where  minds  pari  company, 
where  essential  truths  stand  in  question;  the  inmost 
nature  of  man  and  the  main  direction  of  his  effort 
express  themselves  in  tin-  decision  of  appropriating  or 
rejecting;   and  it   is  through  such   a   decision    that    the 

energy  and  depth  of  religion  become  evident.  All 
this,  however,  has  no  relationship  to  the  elaborate  con- 
fessions of  past  generations ;  such  confessions  can  he 
accepted  with  great   readiness,  and  be  united  with  a 

gnat    shallowness   of  religious    hie;     and    Hie   -.pp., si 


472  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

tion  to  all  this  may  arise  out  of  a  genuine  zeal  for 
religion. 

How  the  recognition  of  the  religion  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  with  its  inner  gradations  carries  in  itself  definite 
decisions   which  have  met  us  at  each  point   of  our 
inquiry,  it  is  not  necessary  here  to  do  more  than  to 
refer  briefly  to  the  fact.     The  main  point  to  be  borne 
in  mind  is,  that  the  world  of  nearest-at-hand  experience 
— outer   and  inner — does   not   signify  the  whole   of 
reality,  that  such  a  world  rests  upon  a  deeper  world, 
and  it  is  only  through  this  depth  that  it  becomes  intel- 
ligible ;    in   this   depth   the   reality    integrates    itself 
into  a  Whole  and  is  able  to  be  present  as  a  Whole 
in  each  individual  place.     But  such  a  Whole  is  not 
able  to  develop  without  a  pointed  collision  with  the 
ordinary  life  and   without   demanding   an    energetic 
division  of  the  prior  elements  of  life.     As  the  Spiritual 
Life  becomes  the  true  standard  of  all  work,  a  spiritual 
culture  stands  out  in  bold  relief  to  all  mere-human 
culture,    and    produces   a    superiority    over    all   the 
agitations  of  mere  time.     Religion  places  human  life 
and  all  its  efforts  under  the  vista  of  eternity.     True, 
the  movement   of  history   is   not   without  value  to 
religion ;  but  the   immediate   results   of  history  are 
not  of  themselves   standards    and  norms,    but   have 
to  justify    themselves   first   of  all    before   a   higher 
tribunal.     Hence  religion  is  well  able  to  acknowledge 
and    to    utilize   for   itself  a   position  attained  to  by 
spiritual  evolution  and  belonging  to  universal  history, 
but  it  will  discriminate  such  a  position  clearly  from 
the  surface  of  time  and  the  shifting  opinions  of  men. 
Religion  will  demand  in  a  most  decisive  manner  that 
time  with  all  its  change  and  caprice  shall  not  pass  judg- 


A    RELIGION    OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIND       47:3 

ment  on  the  Spiritual  Life,  but  that  the  latter  shall 
judge  concerning  the  valuable  and  the  valueless  of 
the  things  of  time.  If  religion  holds  forth  in  all  this 
a  spiritual  substance  to  life  and  calls  all  to  battle  for 
this  substance,  will  it  not  also  drive  the  minds  which 
it  has  won  for  such  a  struggle  to  some  kind  of  conjoint 
work  and  of  visible  coherence  ?  And  will  not  religion 
do  this  all  the  more,  the  more  clearly  the  wide  dis- 
tance becomes  visible  between  its  own  claims  and  the 
ordinary  situation  of  life  ? 

The  growth  of  the  task  makes  the  opposition 
appear  all  the  greater,  and  a  further  experience  shows 
that  the  opposition  does  not  succumb  with  the  ac- 
ceptation of  the  Spiritual  Life.  Religion  itself  steps 
into  evil  entanglement  and  hindrance,  and  the  dark- 
ness and  unreason  of  our  world  heighten.  This 
full  acknowledgment  is  an  essential  portion  of  the 
religious  conviction  ;  and  it  is  in  this  that  religion 
parts  company  with  all  abstract  idealism  which  is 
satisfied  with  the  mere  i'aet  of  Hie  Spiritual  Lite  but 
which  pays  no  heed  to  the  more  intimate  experiences 
of  religion.  Religious  conviction  further  differentiates 
itself  from  all  the  enthusiasm  of  the  culture  and 
progress  which  believe  themselves  able  to  tone  down 
irreconcilable  contradictions;  it  differentiates  itself. 
too,  from  all  purely  aesthetic  culture  which  shows  only 
the  light  side  of  things   in  the    foreground,  and  which 

threatens  to  transform  the  whole  of  life  into  a  gra 
ful  but   merely  empty  play.     Hut   the  religions  con 
viction  proclaims  with  all  emphasis  that  life  is  no  ni< ire 
play,  bui   that   from    its  foundation  it   carries  within 
itself  a  mighty  strenuousness,  and  it  is  through  this 
conviction  thai  religion  can  bind  together  its  adherents 


474  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

Hut  the  dismissal  of  a  weak  optimism  in  all  its 
forms  does  not  drive  religious  conviction  into  the 
path  of  a  melancholy  pessimism.  For  the  religious 
conviction  ascends  through  all  the  complications  and 
hindrances  to  a  new  stage  which  lies  beyond  the 
entanglements  of  human  existence ;  here  it  is  able 
to  found  securely  a  reality,  and  here  discover  energy 
and  courage  to  combat  all  opposition.  That  life 
finally  reaches  joyousness  after  painful  toil,  and 
that  at  last  out  of  the  Nay  a  Yea  dawns — this  is 
again  a  confession  that  can  only  proceed  out  of  an 
original  movement  of  life — a  movement  in  which 
an  energy  for  the  union  of  souls  dwells. 

When  the  religious  fellowship  realises  this  fact 
as  well  as  other  similar  facts,  it  discovers  for  itself 
a  mighty  task  within  and  without.  True,  the  fact 
must  ever  be  present  that  religion  intends  to  raise 
man  to  a  cosmic  life  which  claims  to  be  the  deepest 
ground  of  all  reality ;  and  therefore  the  religious 
fellowship  dare  not  ever  sever  itself  from  the  whole 
of  life,  but  it  will  maintain  its  place  in  this  whole, 
and  take  up  the  struggle  against  all  perversion 
with  joyous  courage  and  certain  trust.  Hegel  was 
justified  in  his  warning  against  the  petty  retail- 
traders  of  belief.  Nothing  is  more  essential  for 
religion — and  nothing  ought  to  be  more  essential 
for  the  religious  community — than  to  raise  life  into 
Greatness,  the  finite  into  the  Infinite,  and  the  temporal 
into  the  Eternal.  Here  it  is  necessary  to  struggle 
against  all  that  is  sub-spiritual  as  well  as  against 
all  admixture  of  the  spiritual  with  the  merely  human, 
to  struggle  against  defacements  and  malformations 
of  the  Spiritual  Life,  to  struggle  against  a  torpor  on 


A    RELIGION   OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIND       475 

one  side  and  against  shallowness  on  the  other  side. 
The  spiritual  is  to  be  raised  to  its  own  heights,  whilst 
its  ethical  basal  character,  its  superiority  to  all  merely 
natural  process,  its  roots  in  freedom  and  action,  its 
formation  of  a  relationship  from  a  Whole  to  a  Whole 
with  great  clearness,  are  worked  out  and  are  vindi- 
cated in  the  face  of  all  contradiction.  The  decision 
for  all  this  results  not  so  much  in  particular 
propositions  and  doctrines  as  in  convictions  and 
modes  of  thinking ;  it  produces  not  so  much 
finished  results  as  solid  tendencies  and  broad  lines 
of  battle  ;  it  furnishes  a  touch-stone  for  the  separa- 
tion of  the  genuine  and  the  spurious  in  time,  and 
enables  our  effort  to  gain  an  over-individual  stand- 
point. The  deepest  minds  of  men  can  and  must  meet 
together  in  such  a  standpoint;  then  a  concentration 
opposes  a  destruction;  a  substance  of  life  is  main- 
tained over  against  all  mere  manifestation  of  energies; 
and  human  existence,  amidst  the  full  estimation  of 
conflicting  experiences,  signifies  a  meaning  which 
never  can  fall  upon  us  from  without  but  which  has  to 
be  struggled  lor  ever  anew.  Such  arc  the  demands 
of  all  times;  such  are  especially  the  urgent  demands 
of  the  present. 

)   The  Relationship  to  History.     The  inquiry  into 

religion  lias  led  us  often  into  the  problem  of  history. 
We  have  already  observed  that  there  is  no  such  thing 

as   history      history   ;is  ;in    inner  experience      without 

a  return-movemenl  to  an  eternal  order  of  things. 
We  have  also  observed  how  religion,  through  its 
discovery  of  various  stages  in  life,  increased  in  ;i  most 
important  manner  the  significance  of  history  and  the 
historical  character  of  our  existence.     In  this  place  we 


476  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

are  not  so  much  concerned  with  a  question  of  principle 
as  with  the  question  how  far  is  religion  a  matter  of 
history,  what  promises  does  history  make,  and  what 
dangers  does  it  prepare. 

Religion  of  the  Characteristic  kind  will  urge  history 
to  assist  in  the  development  of  life.  For  this  religion 
is  founded  upon  great  experiences  of  life,  and  is  unable 
to  deny  that  these  experiences  do  not  clearly  meet 
everyone  at  every  moment,  but  that  those  deeper 
experiences  of  religion  can  become  strongly  obscured 
through  the  passing  experiences  of  the  moment. 
And  since,  at  the  same  time,  the  conviction,  with- 
in the  province  of  religion,  obtains  that  the  course 
of  time  is  not  able  to  bring  forth  new  truths 
but  only  an  unfolding  of  a  timeless  truth,  it  is 
in  no  way  impossible  to  gain  stimulations  and 
indications  from  past  times,  such  as  our  own  time 
does  not  offer.  Should  not  the  past  thus  bring  the 
present  to  a  completion,  and  does  it  not  contain 
conspicuous  epochs  when  the  religious  movement — the 
religious  creativeness — scaled  a  height  otherwise  un- 
attainable ?  Such  summits  might  be  found — summits 
where  pressing  problems  of  the  general  situation 
and  great  personalities  came  into  contact  with  each 
other,  and  through  the  contact  the  otherwise  stag- 
nant existence  was  brought  into  a  current.  Through 
this  the  historical  religions  originated,  which  in- 
corporate a  type  of  spiritual  life — a  type  which 
exhibits  its  power  through  the  centuries  and  mil- 
lenniums, and  brings  and  offers  to  man  what  has 
been  gained  in  the  form  of  achievements  and  experi- 
ences. Should  we  not  set  our  own  life  in  union 
with  this  ? 


A    RELIGION    OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIND       477 

Certainly  we  must  do  this,  but  we  must  not  pass 
over  the  limits  and  dangers  of  such  a  union  with 
history  precisely  in  the  domain  of  religion.  Religion 
lays  hold  of  an  Absolute  Life  which  in  its  very  nature 
is  timeless.  If  a  particular  epoch  advances  particularly 
far,  yet  it  apprehends  the  Eternal  far  better  as  the  source 
of  its  achievements  ;  and  its  genuine  effect  lies  in  the 
fact  that  it  illumines  the  path  to  the  Eternal,  and  not 
that  it  holds  mankind  fast  in  itself.  In  a  word,  it  is 
only  in  so  far  as  the  epoch  places  itself  in  the  service 
of  an  immediate  and  intimate  life,  only  in  so  far  as  it 
leads  out  beyond  itself,  and  only  in  so  far  as  it  frees 
man  from  the  accidental  nature  of  the  moment 
and  raises  him  into  a  genuine  present,  that  history 
can  further  religion.  Hence,  that  alone  can  be 
religiously  valuable  which  transforms  itself  into  an 
immediacy  of  life,  and  it  is  always  necessary  to  test 
how  far  the  historical  quality  of  any  thing  corresponds 
to  such  a  demand.  The  soul's  own  lite  thus  stands 
always  above  all  mere  communication  of  the  just  ; 
thus  il  adjusts  the  past  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
height  of  its  own  experience  :  thus  religion  develops 
itself  not  so  much  from  out  of  history  as  within  history  ; 
and  thus  all  genuine  use  of  history  becomes  al  the 
same  time  an  ;innnlmenl  of  bare  history. 

This  treatmenl  of  history  differs  from  the  tradi- 
tional and  still  prevalent  elmreli  organisation  of  the 
present  day  more  than  is  usually  discovered;  and 
friends  of  the  newer  mode  of  thoughl  often  under 
rate  the  greatness  of  such  :i  turn.  The  old  mode  <>t 
thoughl  conceived  of  the  Divine  ;is  being  enclosed 
in  ;i  particular  point  of  time,  and  thai  the  work  of 
later  generations  was  simply  to  appropriate   and  to 


478  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

hold  fast  to  what  had  there  and  then  appeared  ;  they 
must   copy  truly  the  model  presented  there.     Thus 
we  obtain  that  ideal  of  the  imitation  of  Christ — an 
ideal  which  has  governed  the  life  of  Christendom  from 
a  height  far  above  all  other  individual  summits.     This 
conception  of  religion  possesses  as  its  broad  foundation 
a  conviction  of  truth  and  of  life's  content  which  in  its 
scientific  aspect  reaches  back  to  Plato.     Truth  appears 
here  as  harmony  with  a  pre-existing  immutableEssence, 
and  Spiritual  Life  appears   as  a  copy,  an  imitation, 
and  an  explanation  of  this  perfect  Essence.     According 
to  this,  there  is  nothing  new  to  be  reached ;  there  is 
no  essential  progress  and   no    universal  process ;   all 
that  is  necessary  is  to  guide  reason  and  effort  ever 
back  to  the  summit  which,  according  to  Plato,  did 
not  lie  within  but  above  time,  and  which  for  the  first 
time   is   planted  by  the    Christian  conviction  within 
time.     The  new  mode  of  thought  has  broken  away 
from  this  ideal  of  truth  not  so  much  through  theor- 
etical  reflection  as  through    the  heightening  of  the 
needs  of  life,  and  through  a  deeper  longing  for  in- 
dependence and  originality.     Truth  appears  now  no 
more  as  a  copy  of  an   absolute  essence    but   as   an 
elevation  to  an  Absolute  Life,  and   as  an  intimate 
participation  in  such  a  Life.     It  does  not  belong  to 
this  particular  part  of  our  discussion  to  examine  here 
how  all  this  transforms  the  tasks  and  conditions  of  the 
individual  provinces  as  well  as  especially  the  problem 
of  knowledge ;    but   evidently  there   grows  through 
all  this  a  characteristic  relationship  of  history  to  life, 
because  now  we  have  not  to  seek  within  life  a  ready- 
made    truth    which    we    have   to   hold    fast   and    to 
imitate,  but  all  that  was   great    in  history  is  to  be 


A    RELIGION    OF    A    DISTINCTIVE    KIND       479 

transformed  back  into  the  immediate  timeless  life 
from  which  it  arose,  in  order  that  from  out  of  the 
community  of  this  life  it  may  be  able  to  profit  us. 
The  contact  is  able  to  become  far  more  intimate 
than  all  merely  historical  communication  is  able  to 
engender ;  but  at  the  same  time  the  relationship 
becomes  free,  because  life  has  ever  to  wrestle  with 
greatness  in  order  to  win  greatness. 

What  is  demanded  by  such  a  turn  is  not  already 
fulfilled  through  any  stronger  relationship  of  history 
with  the  subject — not  through  an  inner  subjective 
appropriation.  For  as  certainly  as  personal  life,  that 
forms  worlds  and  elevates  being,  is  something  other 
than  a  subjective  life,  quite  as  certainly  life  con- 
tains the  demand  of  a  superiority  to  history,  and 
quite  as  certainly  must  that  life  relate  itself  not  so 
much  in  a  passive  as  in  an  active  way  to  history  ; 
certainly,  too,  must  that  life  incessantly  free  the 
eternal   content    from  the-  transient    of  the  mere   form 

of  time,  and  thus  sec  another  meaning  in  it  and 
make  something  other  oul  of  it  than  the  older  mode 
of  viewing  it  had  done. 

Let  us  consider  further,  in  the  lighl  of  such  ;i 
discussion,  in  what  special  manner  history  can  aid 
religion.  If  it  is  necessary  t<>  obtain  ;i  new  reality 
superior  to  the  world,  history  becomes  of  use  through 
its  greal  personalities  as  wdl  as  its  great  organisations. 
Both  arc  indispensable  for  the  furtherance  of  the  high*  i 
life.  In  personality  alone  does  life  reach  the  heigh! 
oforiarinal  creativeness,  bul  without  organisation  the 
i,,w  creation  gained  could  not  unfold  itsell  into  .-i 
thoroughly  complete  reality,  and  could  not  encompass 
the  individual  with  its  spiritual  atmosphere. 


480  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

Indeed,  the  stronger  religion  develops  its  character- 
istic mode,  the  more  will  it  seek  a  close  relationship 
to  great  personalities,  for  these  alone  present  the  life 
superior  to  the  world  in  an  intuitive  form  and  as 
secure  actuality  ;  and  without  such  personalities  such 
an  elevated  life  would  appear  only  in  indefinite  out- 
lines. The  Divine  within  the  depths  of  human  nature 
is  now  awakened  to  a  vivid  life,  and  is  brought  to  full 
effect  for  other  lives  also.  That  the  new  life  is  not 
in  the  main  a  product  of  mere  man  but  is  a  com- 
munication of  God,  is  the  fundamental  conviction  of 
all  religion.  But  the  average  of  mankind  fails  to 
work  out  and  to  place  in  clear  bold  relief  the  Divine ; 
the  Divine  here  loses  itself  in  the  merely  human  path, 
and  does  not  disengage  life  from  pettiness  and  doubt. 
To  those  rare  ones  only  has  power  been  given  to 
sever  the  Divine  from  the  merely  human  and  to  hold 
it  forth  in  a  clear  form  as  a  characteristic,  immense, 
and  elevated  world  to  man,  and  to  allow  such  Divine 
effects  with  all  their  energy  to  work  upon  the  soul. 
When  such  happened,  it  produced  a  raising  of  the 
life  into  greatness  and  certainty ;  it  freed  man  from 
merely  subjective  particularity,  and  brought  him  a 
progressive  certainty  of  the  presence  of  a  Divine 
within  his  own  nature.  Thus  the  customary  and 
conventional  life  with  all  its  petty  aims  sank  to  a 
lower  level,  and  all  its  power  faded  away  before  the 
glory  of  a  new  world.  But  all  this  happens  not 
through  any  new  doctrines,  but  pre-eminently  through 
the  raising  up  of  a  new  life,  through  the  development 
of  a  characteristic  spiritual  type,  which  grips  the  man 
with  irresistible  power,  and  which  brings  him  to  a 
realisation    of  that  which   has  been  prepared    in  the, 


A   RELIGION   OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIM)       tst 

depth  of  his  own  nature,  but  which  is  not  able  to 
ascend  from  the  realm  of  shadows  to  that  of  a  clear 
reality  without  such  a  help.  The  main  and  essential 
effect  of  such  great  personalities  is  the  fact  that  they, 
through  the  powerful  energy  with  which  they  present 
before  us  a  type  of  life  incarnated  within  themselves, 
constrain  us  to  a  decision  and  lift  us  out  of  the  stag- 
nation of  the  trivial  occurrences  of  daily  routine. 

In  order  to  obtain  such  a  power,  it  is  essential  that 
the  content  should  succeed  in  reaching  an  intuitive 
form — that  the  sublime  thought  should  gain  Mesh 
and  blood.  We  have  already  recognised  in  this  the 
work  of  an  imagination  which  holds  sway  over  entire 
worlds,  and  which  makes  the  inconceivable  easy  and, 
indeed,  self-evident,  whilst  it  places  the  best  that 
appears  in  this  present  world  into  the  service  of  the 
new  world.  The  representation  of  this  sublime  reality 
retains  here  also  its  aspiring  and  symbolical  character. 
Is  it  not  a  symbol,  for  instance,  when  in  the  leaching  of 
Jcsns,  the  relationships  of  parents  and  children  typify 
the  union  of  God  and  humanity?  But  notwith- 
standing the  symbol,  no  cleft  is  felt  here  because  what 
actually  belongs  to  our  world  is  seen  in  the  light  of  the 
new  world,  and  is  through  it  ennobled,  raised,  and 
transfigured.     Because  thus  the  higher  draws  to  itself 

tin-  lower,  and    because  the  higher  can  even  shine  out 

of  the  lower,  the  full  presence  of  the  Divine  appears 

reached.      Such  a  union  of  the  Divine  and  the  human 

is  not  confined  t<>  individual  summits  in  the  history 

of  the  world,  but  extends  itself  over  the  whole  of 
humanity;   it    results   in   an    inner  elevation   and    iii  ;i 

spirit  1 1. 1 1  isa  I  inn  of  the  whole  of  existence  ;  it  const  i  nets, 
through    the    dawning   of    its   content,   an    essentially 


482  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

original  life  with  its  secure  superiority  to  the  confusion 
and  unreliableness  of  the  social  sphere,  and  also  with 
its  energetic  conviction  of  a  life  of  the  spirit  founded 
upon  the  incontestable  fact  of  the  living  presence  of 
a  new  world  within  the  human  circle.  Nowhere  is  it 
more  true  than  here  that  it  is  not  history  that  makes 
man,  but  that  it  is  man  who  makes  history. 

Thus,  our  estimation  of  the  great  personalities 
of  the  Church  is  able  to  follow  a  good  portion  of 
the  path  which  they  travelled  over.  But  a  point  of 
divergence  certainly  occurs.  Where  the  realisation 
of  a  new  and  intimate  life  founded  in  God  appears 
as  the  main  fact,  and  where,  as  greatest  of  all  achieve- 
ments, the  experience  of  this  Divine  Life  is  recog- 
nised, the  Highest  dare  not  sever  itself  from  human 
nature,  but  must  remain  with  it  in  genuine  com- 
munion of  life,  for  otherwise  the  elevation  would 
mean  no  elevation  of  the  whole  nature  of  man. 
It  is  only  when  such  great  ones  belong  wholly  to 
us,  only  when  they  participate  in  our  struggles  and 
sorrows,  our  temptations  and  doubts,  that  their  experi- 
ence is  able  to  become  our  experience,  their  overcoming 
our  overcoming,  and  that  the  miracle  which  occurred 
in  them  can  ever  renew  itself.  Further,  the  passive 
character  of  religion  here  falls  away.  The  man 
moved  greatness  as  far  as  possible  into  the  distance 
in  order  to  gaze  upon  it  with  a  blind  devotion  instead 
of  binding  it  most  definitely  with  his  own  life  and 
effort.  But  such  a  binding  is  impossible  through 
mere  imitation  and  blind  submission.  That  which 
can  work  best  towards  greatness  is  the  training  for 
an  ever  fuller  freedom.  The  free  person,  however, 
must  set  and  even  prove  all — even  the  Highest  and 


A    RELIGION   OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIND       4S3 

especially  the  Highest — upon  the  foundation  of 
his  own  life,  and  see  what  all  this  can  mean 
for  life.  All  this  prevents  in  no  way  a  deep  and 
sincere  veneration  of  greatness ;  but  this  greatness 
must  never  in  itself  become  an  object  of  religious 
faith,  and  all  worship  of  man  should  be  kept  at 
a  distance  as  an  injury  to  God. 

In  a  way  other  than  that  of  great  religious  person- 
alities, history  works  through  the  religious  community. 
All  pre-eminent  greatness  of  such  personalities  does 
no  injury  to  the  significance   of  the  religious  com- 
munity.    For    mankind    is    in    need    not    only    of 
creativeness,    but   also   of  the    preservation    of    this 
creativeness  ;  it  is  in  need  not  only  of  a  fundamental 
foundation    for  action,    but   also   of  continuous  pro- 
gressive actions,      iic  who  bears  in  mind  the  Pact  that 
in  religion  it  is  not  so  much  the  question  of  the  salva- 
tion of  the   mere  individual  that   stands  in   the   lore- 
ground,  but  the  formation  of  a  spiritual  nature  and 
of  a  cosmic  life  in  the  soul  of  man,  w  ill    in    no    waj 
wish  to  see  the  cosmic  character  of  religion  stunted  ; 
he    will     perceive     that    his    own    consolidation     and 
realisation     are     obtained     through     the     community, 
which    is  indispensable    on   accounl   of  iis  spiritual 
atmosphere  and    its  historical   continuity.     Bui   this 
continuity    docs    not     lie     in    externa]    things    hut. 
in    :i   unity   of  spirit,   and    this   spirit    cannot     How 
i,K   upon    tlx-   later  generations,   from  without,  hut 
musi  ever  originate  anew,  in  order  thai  it   may  seek 
a  strengthening  in  whal  is  transmitted  and  in  order 
to  differentiate  the  eternal  from  the  temporal. 

Consequently  the  position  of  man  to  the  historical 
religions  can  never  he  thai    which  the  ecclesiastical 


484-  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

forms  aim  strongly  to  make  it.  These  religions  are 
receptacles  of  truth  or  pathways  to  truth,  but  are 
never  the  truth  itself.  They  offer  in  our  human 
situation  and  exigencies  the  eternal  not  in  its  pure 
form  but  mixed  with  the  temporal  and  the  fluctuat- 
ing In  such  a  connection  adherence  to  an  histori- 
cal  religion  does  not  mean  the  recognition  of  simply 
everything  in  its  total  condition  as  so  much  pure 
truth,  but  the  welcoming  and  reverencing  in  it  the 
formation  most  readily  capable  of  developing  within 
itself  the  absolute  religion,  which  can  never  exist 
without  an  historical  religion. 

How  much,  however,  history  can  mean  in  this  re- 
spect is  not  decided  in  the  last  resort  by  general 
reflection,  but  by  the  witness  of  human  experience. 
But  it  is  decided  before  all  else  by  this :  whether, 
among  the  historical  religions,  one  religion  is  extant 
that  has  seized  with  full  consciousness,  and  has  de- 
veloped through  the  whole  of  its  being  that  which 
has  presented  itself  to  us  as  the  kernel  of  religion — 
especially  of  Characteristic  religion.  If  this  is  the 
case,  then  it  is  not  necessary  to  find  the  path- 
way of  truth  beforehand,  but  only  to  proceed  farther 
on  the  path  already  found.  This  point,  however,  is 
a  later  conclusion  of  our  investigation. 

In  the  event  of  an  affirmation,  however,  religion  is 
no  ready-made  possession  of  man ;  it  remains  a 
matter  for  incessant  seeking  and  wrestling,  and 
must  ever  issue  anew  from  man's  own  work  and 
experience.  15 ut  what  man  loses  in  rest  and  alleged 
security,  he  gains  in  the  greatness  and  truth  of 
the  ncrv  facts.  For  is  there  not  far  too  large  a 
picture  of   religion    presented    when    we    view    it  as 


A    RELIGION    OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIM)      485 

ever  anew  arising  from  the  foundation  of  a  timeless 
order  of  things  and  proceeding  as  a  continuous  work, 
and  when  the  growth  of  the  new  reality  encom- 
passes all  ages  and  civilisations  ?  Would  it  not 
be  better  to  present  a  smaller  picture  which  shows 
religion  as  having  been  essentially  completed  at  a 
special  point  of  time,  and  that  all  succeeding  ages 
have  but  to  hold  fast  to  what  had  been  fixed 
there?  It  is  not  in  the  fixation  of  its  content 
to  any  one  particular  point  of  time  that  religion 
verifies  its  genuine  eternity,  but  in  a  living  and 
elevating  present  in  the  midst  of  all  the  fluctua- 
tions of  time  and  over  against  the  changes  of  time. 

But  do  not  such  a  presentation  of  the  inner  life 
and  such  a  critical  relationship  to  history  and  society 
bring  us  perilously  near  to  the  rationalism  which 
we  do  not  fear  so  much  as  docs  the  historicism  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  but  whose  limits,  however, 
have  been  laid  bare  by  the  experience  of  the  times  in 
a  way  that  cannot  be  contradicted  \  We  answer.  No, 
For  the  bearer  of  life  is  not  for  us  the  individual 
with  his  supposed  ready-made  intelligence,  but  the 
personality  only  in  its  process  of  becoming)  through  its 
encompassing  of  the  world  and  its  upbuilding  of  a  new 
reality.      The  intimate  and  timeless  life  which   such   a 

cosmic  nature  desires  cannot  be  acquired  by  it  either  in 

a  day  or  in  isolation,  for  in  order  to  climb  to  its  own 
heights  the  life  must  draw  the  traditional  religious 
world  into    itself  and    remain    in    constant    intercourse 

with  snrli  a  world.  The  cmii.nl  of  this  religious 
world  can  mean  so  much  more  to  us  than  to  rational- 
ism, because  religion  does  not  merely  signify  to  us  :i 
view  of  the    universe  or  theoretical   notions  lor  the 


486  CHAHAC  TEKISTIC    RELIGION 

definition  and  explanation  of  phenomena.  Religion 
means  to  us  a  mighty  concentration  of  the  Spiritual 
Life ;  in  it  we  observe  and  revere  great  spiritual 
energies  in  which  hidden  experiences  of  our  nature 
are  revealed,  and  which  have  made  life  itself  quite 
other  than  it  was — made  it  richer  and  deeper.  Thus 
Christianity  has  not  so  much  brought  forth  new  con- 
ceptions of  God  and  the  universe  as  that  it  has  trans- 
formed the  fundamental  process  of  life,  and  along 
with  this  our  fundamental  relationship  to  reality ; 
since  it  became  strong  enough,  through  the  most 
intimate  union  of  God  and  man,  to  take  up  the 
whole  depth  of  suffering  into  the  Life-process,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  raise  the  Life-process  beyond 
suffering.  Through  this,  Christianity  changed  not 
merely  the  view  of  reality  but  reality  itself,  and  thus 
introduced  man  to  a  more  essential  life.  This  further 
development  of  life  does  not  depend  on  the  mere 
environment  or  on  mere  time ;  for  unless  such  a 
development  is  laid  in  the  very  foundation  of  man's 
nature,  unless  it  is  constantly  able  to  verify  and  to 
renew  itself,  it  can  never  become  our  own  truth, 
faith,  and  hope.  But  the  penetration  into  this  founda- 
tion of  our  being  is  made  immeasurably  easier  through 
its  linkage  with  history,  and  especially  through  the 
positing  of  the  nature  upon  the  formative  process  of 
the  great  religions  where  mighty  convulsions  and 
renewals  have  raised  them  out  of  all  the  insecurity  of 
reflection,  and  out  of  all  the  pettiness  of  daily  routine. 
It  remains  always  a  main  fact  that  history  is  not  able 
to  deliver  us  from  the  decisive  experiences  and 
further  developments  of  life,  but  it  is  able  to  make 
them  easier. 


A    RELIGION    OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIM)      487 

The  fact  that  the  historical  religions  thus  render 
the  abiding  truth  far  more  intuitive  and  even  per- 
sonified, through  its  close  relations  to  special  person 
alities,  epochs,  and  environment,  signifies  a  great 
gain  so  long  as  this  embodiment  does  not  enter  into 
conflict  with  the  spiritual  substance.  For  it  is  only 
through  this  turn  to  intuition,  to  the  entire  individu- 
ality of  an  historical  formation,  that  the  religious  life 
is  able  to  free  itself  from  the  other-worldliness  and 
shadowy  character  which  otherwise  cling  to  it.  The 
individual  instances  in  the  historical  religions  are  thus 
no  mere  examples,  but  a  living  factual  proof — an  in- 
contestable realisation.  History  is  able  through  such 
a  contact  with  intimate  life  to  place  on  one  side  all 
alienation,  and  to  become  more  confiding  to  us  than 
all  the  visible  things  of  the  present  moment,  and  than 
all  sensuous  nearness.  Thus  the  distant  land  where 
the  Saviour  lived  and  worked  and  suffered  has  become 
to  Christendom  a  spiritual  home,  and  the  personalities 
who  surrounded  him  have  become  types  that  have 
permanently  accompanied  the  work  of  life,  and  thai 
have  raised  the  centuries  ever  anew  to  either  l<>\e 
or  enmity. 

Hut  such  an  interweaving  of  history  and  life 
depends  on  fixed  conditions.  It  can  succeed  only  in 
so  far  as   life  finds   the  pathway   to  history   easy,  only 

in  so  far  as  life  furthers  its  own  efforts  through  tin- 
aid   of  history,  and    only    in    SO    far    as   the    interval 

between  pasl  and  present  is  not  perceived.  Bu1 
when  this  interval  is  perceived,  most  importanl 
transformations  create  a  barrier  between  the  intimate 

contact  of  the  Now  and  the  Then.  Thus  we  are  not 
able,    in    connection    with    the    affairs    of    history,    to 


488  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

affirm  anything  without  also  denying  something  ;  we 

are  not  able  to  acknowledge  anything  without  also 
limiting  it.  Thus  the  naive  fusion  of  past  and 
present  fails,  and  the  historical  tie  can  readily 
become  a  hindrance.  History  then  recedes  into  the 
distance,  and  remains  inwardly  alien  to  us  even  in 
the  midst  of  all  the  incessant  scholarly  disquisitions 
concerning  it. 

Such  days  are  critical  days,  and  even  painful  days 
for  man.  But  they  are  necessary  phases  of  a 
universal  movement ;  they  are  indispensable  for  the 
purifying  and  deepening,  for  the  purer  working  out 
of  eternal  truth,  and  for  a  fundamental  preparation 
of  a  new  configuration  of  the  things  of  religion. 
What  gets  shaken  in  such  days  is  in  reality  not 
the  fundamental  fact  of  religion  itself— not  the  mani- 
festation of  an  intimate  reality  founded  in  God — 
but  the  human  conception  of  this  reality.  Indeed, 
the  upheaval  itself  is  in  the  last  resort  a  testimony  of 
the  presence  of  Superior  Powers.  Mere  movements 
and  transformations  within  its  own  province  alone 
have  always  proved  dangerous  to  traditional  religion  ; 
all  changes  in  the  conceptions  of  the  universe,  all 
adoption  of  new  aims  of  activity  do  not,  in  spite  of 
the  strong  agitation  of  souls,  remain  long  outside  the 
substance  of  religion,  but  enter  into  the  ground  and 
plant  themselves  in  the  soil  of  religion,  and  thus 
act  as  a  real  portion  of  religion  itself.  It  is  only  then 
that  a  conflict  of  the  new  with  the  other  views  becomes 
irreconcilable.  So  that  finally  nothing  other  than 
religion  itself  produced  the  upheaval  and  the  renewal ; 
or  rather,  the  Divine  in  religion  has  anew  proved  its 
sublimity  above  all  human    configurations,  whilst  it 


A    RELIGION   OF   A    DISTINCTIVE    KIND       489 

proved,  rejected,  and  transformed  such  configurations. 
Viewed  thus,  the  most  painful  crisis,  with  all  the 
anxieties  and  unrest  which  it  prepares  for  man.  is  an 
expression  of  the  sway  of  a  Superior  Power  which 
does  not  create  without  destroying  and  which  does 
not  destroy  without  creating. 


PART  IV.— CHARACTERISTIC  RELIGION 

(Continued) 

CHAPTER    XIV 

(d)  The  General  Aspect  of  Religion  and  Life 

It  is  now  necessary  to  examine  in  conclusion  how, 
after  the  appearance  of  Characteristic  religion,  the 
general  aspect  of  life  presents  itself,  how  far  a 
solution  of  the  problems  which  led  to  religion  has  been 
achieved,  and  whether  the  solution  has  resulted  in 
the  sense  we  strove  to  see  at  the  commencement  of 
our  investigation.  For  it  could  very  well  be  that 
the  development  of  religion  had  made  out  of  man 
something  quite  other  than  he  seemed  to  be  prior  to 
this  development,  and  that  he  in  his  aspiration  after 
happiness  found  more  than  happiness  in  the  sense  of 
human  well-being.  Perhaps  the  experience  of  Saul, 
that  Goethe  was  so  fond  of  citing,  applies  to  us  all — 
of  Saul  who  went  out  to  seek  his  father's  asses  and 
found  a  kingdom. 

1.   The  Persistence  of  Evil 

What  drove  man  mainly  to  religion  was  the  long- 
ing for  a  deliverance  from  evil — evil  without  and 
within — a  longing  after  a  fuller  and  purer  happiness. 
Has  religion,  as  it  manifested  itself  to   us,  satisfied 

490 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION  AND  LIFE     491 

this  longing,  and  has  it  driven  evil  out  of  life  ?  We 
do  not  find  this  to  be  the  case.  Even  alter  the 
manifestation  of  the  Divine  Life  things  proceed 
externally  on  their  old  course ;  the  rigid  indifference 
of  the  course  of  the  world  remained  unaltered 
towards  the  whole  Spiritual  Life  of  man.  This 
Spiritual  Life  continues  suddenly  to  disappear  under 
the  forms  and  aims  of  human  frailty  ;  it  remains  an 
inner  impotence,  tattered  and  torn,  and  perverted  ; 
the  inscrutableness  of  destiny  remains,  which  exhibits 
neither  an  order  of  righteousness  nor  a  reign  of  love. 
Indeed,  the  pressure  of  evil  and  the  gravity  of  unreason 
seem  to  be  but  further  increased  within  man.  It  is, 
first  of  all,  increased  in  itself.  For  now  it  is  in  direct 
contradiction  to  the  new  manifestation  of  Divine  1  life  ; 
it  sets  itself  against  the  domain  of  love,  and  love  is 
hemmed  in  by  it;  now  evil  integrates  itself  more 
into  a  totality  and  seems  to  set  forth  an  energy  of  its 
own  against  the  Divine.  Nowhere  is  this  heighten- 
ing more  to  be  witnessed  than  in  the  problem  <>! 
morality,  because  first  of  all  Characteristic  religion 
Stamps  any  deviation  from  its  path  as  a  rebellion 
against  a  Holy  Will  and  consequently  as  a  guilt. 
Further,  the  elevation  of  the  standard  through  the  new 
life  renders  iniich  problematic  which  was  otherwise 

without  any  doubt.      The  standard  now  shows  clearly 

the  two-edged  character  of  all  human  efforts  and  of 
mere  culture  and  civilisationwith  all  theirramifications. 

On  the  one   hand,  science  and  art  appear   now  :is   the 

highest  aims  for  obtaining  a  reality  superior  to  the 
world,  and  for  bringing  about  the  redemption  of  the 
soul.  <  )n  the  other  hand,  practical  and  technical  work 
appears  not  as  Divine  but  as  a  potentiall)  diabolical 


492  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

power  which  can  also  turn  into  evil  and  demoralises 
man.  Thus,  it  becomes  clear  that  the  most  serious 
hindrance  to  the  spiritual  lies  within  the  spiritual  itself. 

But  along  with  the  thing,  the  consciousness  of  it  also 
grows.  Religion,  in  its  progress  towards  a  Character- 
istic mode,  has  filled  man  with  a  new  need  of  life,  and 
without  such  aid  man's  energy  and  courage  grow 
weary  amidst  insurmountable  obstacles  of  a  hostile 
world.  Religion  further  has  ennobled  this  need  from 
its  very  root,  so  that  man  in  the  inmost  depth  of  his 
being  succeeds  in  coming  to  a  union  with  the  Divine  ; 
he  cannot,  and  dare  not  if  he  could,  consider  himself 
and  his  actions  as  indifferent,  and  he  dare  not  wholly 
despair.  After  his  hopes  have  been  strengthened, 
and  a  greater  inwardness  and  a  greater  longing 
after  love  are  awakened,  he  must  experience,  with 
all  its  poignancy,  the  insufficiency  of  all  that 
human  existence  offers  in  the  way  of  soul  and  of 
love.  The  lack  of  affection  within  the  visible  order 
of  things,  the  fleetingness  and  the  semblance  of 
all  human  love,  the  inner  forlorn  condition  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  in  a  dark  world,  meet  man  now  in  a 
far  more  painful  manner  than  hitherto.  And  the 
leading  spirits  of  religion  were  unanimous  in  pro- 
claiming that  religion,  with  its  heightening  of  the 
standard  and  the  deepening  of  feeling,  rendered 
suffering  not  easier  but  more  difficult :  "  the  more  of 
a  Christian  a  man  is,  the  more  is  he  subject  to 
evil,  suffering,  and  death  "  (Luther). 

In  addition  to  this,  religion  not  only  appears 
powerless  against  the  remaining  world,  but  the  very 
enemy  whom  it  is  supposed  to  overcome  penetrates 
into  its  own  province.     The  superhuman  is  not  able  to 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION  AND  LIFE     493 

communicate  itself  effectively  to  man  without  some 
kind  of  incarnation  within  man's  own  domain  ;  the 
inner  fellowship  must  adopt  external  forms  in  order 
to  become  a  power  within  the  historical  domain. 
But  simultaneously  with  this,  human  frailty  begins  to 
draw  to  itself  the  Divine ;  it  begins  to  weld  that 
which  was  to  raise  man  beyond  himself;  but  man 
welds  this  power  far  too  much  in  accordance  with  his 
own  frailty,  and  moulds  it  so  disastrously  by  means 
of  so  much  arrogance  and  pretence  and  of  so  much 
craving  for  power  and  intolerance  that  the  whole 
may  well  seem  to  be  rather  a  loss  than  a  gain.  In- 
deed, the  more  highly  religion  thinks  of  its  own  task. 
and  the  more  seriously  it  undertakes  such  a  task,  the 
less  is  it  able  to  conceive  of  the  possibility  of  toning 
down  and  of  glossing  over  the  actual  situation,  or  of 
leaving  human  nature  in  the  condition  it  is  in.  If 
there  is  no  toning  down  of  the  Nay,  it  can  only 
be  in  the  strengthening  of  the  Yea  thai  religion 
comes  to  the  aid  of  man. 

2.   The  Overcoming  of  Ehril 

Such   a  strengthening  of  the    Yea  in   reality  estab- 
lishes   itself.      The   manifestation    of  a    new    life      of  a 

new  reality  raises  man  with  entire  certainty  above 
the  spheres  of  wrong  and  unreason.  It  is  :i  funds 
mental  conviction  of  religion  that  the  new  life  in  its 
inmost  nucleus  withstands  all  hindrance,  and  that  all 
defacement  of  Hi'-  Divine  within  the  human  circle  is 
not.  able  to  destroy  it  or  to  annul  its  effects.  Also, 
the  human  point  of  departure  of  life  is  set  by  God, 
and  the  who!.-  of  life  is  maintained  simply  through 
His  energy,  and  is  simultaneously  withdrawn  from  ••ill 


494  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

human  insecurity.  In  this  inmost  original  depth,  no 
failure  or  guilt  of  man  is  able  to  destroy  entirely  his 
spiritual  substance ;  he  cannot,  in  the  words  of  a  re- 
ligious mode  of  expression,  again  fall  from  grace  if 
once  he  has  been  gripped  by  grace.  Even  in  the 
midst  of  the  most  painful  suffering,  and  in  the  over- 
throw of  all  that  was  termed  happiness,  the  blessed- 
ness of  a  refuge  in  Infinite  Love  and  of  a  peace 
superior  to  the  world  in  the  union  with  the  Final 
Ground  of  things  permanently  remain.  The  fact 
that  God  Himself  preserves  the  Divine  alive  within 
us  and  protects  man  also  from  himself  has  been  the 
stand  upon  which  all  hope  of  an  ultimate  conquest  of 
the  Yea  over  the  Nay  within  the  soul  of  man  rests. 

The  new  life  appears  first  of  all  in  opposition  to  the 
world,  and  only  through  loosening  itself  from  the 
world  is  it  able  to  succeed  in  gaining  full  self-reliance. 
But  life  does  not  on  account  of  this  become  a  merely 
isolated  province  which  is  enclosed  within  itself,  and 
which  allows  the  situation  of  the  world  to  remain 
unaltered.  For  such  a  course  could  mean  no  more 
than  a  painful  flight  of  individuals  from  the  iniquity 
of  the  world,  and  could  help  in  bringing  forth  no  more 
than  a  devout  disposition.  But  in  all  this  the  sub- 
stance of  life  would  gain  but  little.  The  true  meaning 
of  religion  is  rather  the  fact  that  such  a  higher  life 
signifies  a  higher  stage  of  the  total-life  of  man  him- 
self, that  it  develops  further  the  very  substance  of 
reality,  and  that  it  must  strike  its  effects  everywhere, 
and  must  come  to  a  fundamental  understanding  with 
the  environing  world.  The  total  aim  of  the  Spiritual 
Life,  its  turn  from  the  world  to  its  own  depth,  the 
construction    of    an    activity   of   the    sustained    and 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION  AND  LIFE      495 

transformed  nature — all  this  is  reached  through  an 
intimate  inclusion  of  the  final  unity  ;  it  is  only  through 
this  that  the  movement  of  life  entered  once  more  into 
a  current,  "whilst  otherwise  life  would  have  become 
weary  and  worn  on  account  of  the  oppositions. 
Through  such  a  turn,  it  is  not  only  this  or  that  isolated 
good  that  is  gained,  but  the  whole  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  is  redeemed  ;  through  the  positing  of  man  from 
the  fringe  of  things  to  their  centre  an  inner  relation- 
ship to  the  whole  of  reality  is  gained ;  through  the 
comprehension  of  a  continuous  Divine  act  in  the 
formation  and  preservation  of  life,  an  indestructible 
consolidation  is  acquired.  The  union  from  a  Whole 
to  a  Whole  gave  a  depth  of  life  to  the  Spiritual  Life 
of  humanity  as  well  as  to  the  souls  of  individuals, 
and  it  is  from  such  a  union  that  there  originated  what 
is  known  as  our  experience  of  an  intimate  relationship 
with  things,  of  an  inner  expansion  of  human  nature 
and  of  a  creativeness  ;  and  from  such  a  union,  loo,  .ill 
spirit  to  labour  and  all  soul  to  act  have  issued. 

It  is  true  that  this  life  which  originates  in  the 
deepest  ground  is  not  conveyed  immediately  into  the 
domain  of  work  and  configuration.  Bui  it  works 
upon  the  whole  of  one's  being,  and  through  this 
works  indirectly  upon  all  else  it  comes  in  contact 
with.     Hut  certainly  this  life  is  perverted  and  contains 

a    germ    of    th'-    most    intricate    Confusion    when,    for 

instance,  a  Christian  doctrine  or  n  Christian  State  is 

desired  through  the  carrying  over  bodily  the  mere 
formulas  of  religion,  instead  ol  realising  that   religion 

consists  in  the  possession  of  developing  convictions 

and  doctrines.  It  is  only  a  shallow  mode  of  thinking 
that     can    ignore    the    fact     that     ( 'hrisl  i.imt  \     is    able 


4%'  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

to  work  and  has  worked  by  transforming  the  whole 
man,  and  that  it  culminates  in  bringing  about  an 
alteration  in  his  fundamental  relationship  to  reality, 
through  the  power  which  issued  out  of  itself.  He 
who  denies  this  connection  with  the  fundamental 
questions  of  our  spiritual  existence  thinks  of  Science 
and  of*  the  State  not  highly  but  meanly. 

The  conquest  of  the  Yea  is  determined  all  along 
the  line  by  the  turn  to  religion  ;  we  gain  a  portion  in 
an  Absolute  Life  and,  at  the  same  time,  an  untold 
activity;  and  we  become  fellow-citizens  of  a  new 
world.  But  in  this  final  conquest  of  the  Yea  there 
are  two  different  kinds  of  things  which  must  not  be 
forgotten  :  the  negation  and  self-denial  which  the  Yea 
desires,  and  also  the  whereabouts  of  the  oppositions 
in  the  environing  world  and  in  the  soul  itself.  Man 
is  not  emancipated  while  he  lives  and  thinks  in  his 
natural  state ;  he  is  set  free  only  through  an  entire 
inversion  of  his  first  impressions  of  the  world — through 
the  germ  of  an  Infinite  and  Eternal  Life.  What  is 
usually  deemed  happiness — the  full  satisfaction  of 
natural  impulse — lies  below  this  sphere  of  the  higher 
life,  and  will  also  be  overcome  by  the  new  emanci- 
pation ;  it  is  only  in  opposition  to  the  small  self  that 
there  originates  a  spiritual  self  in  man.  So  that  re- 
ligion on  its  summits  does  not  speak  of  prosperity  or 
of  supreme  happiness,  but  of  blessedness ;  and  when 
the  popular  idea  falsely  conceived  of  this  as  some- 
thing lying  on  the  other  side  of  the  grave,  even 
the  mistake  points  to  the  truth  that  something  must 
pass  away  if  ever  a  genuine  life  and  being  are  to 
be  won.  Religion  rightly  understood,  is,  in  its  direct 
affirmation  of  life,  very  far  removed  from  all  cudaemon- 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION  AM)  LIFE      \ffl 

ism,  and,  indeed,  frees  itself  fundamentally  from  the 
narrowness  of  such  an  easy-going  affirmation.  Insepar- 
able from  religion  is  the  idea  of  sacrifice — the  idea  not 
of  a  sacrifice  happening  but  once,  but  of  a  continu- 
ous sacrifice.  Consequently  there  remains  perma- 
nently a  loud  lament  even  in  the  conquest  of  the  Yea, 
which  is  very  different  from  the  pleasurable Lubberland 
of  which  common  theological  eudaemonism  dreams. 

Further,  over  against  the  turn  to  religion,  the 
hostile  world  of  darkness  and  unreason  permanently 
remains  ;  these  draw  man  to  themselves  ;  they  dutch 
him  with  the  energy  of  sense  impressions  and  with 
the  eloquence  of  the  mere  expansion  of  things,  and 
they  gain  power  over  his  soul.  This  opposition  is  not 
overcome  once  for  all,  but  is  to  be  overcome  ever 
anew  ;  pain  does  not  entirely  vanish,  but  remains  and 
echoes  within  the  blessedness  of  the  new  life,  and  never 
allows  the  conquest  to  enter  into  an  inactive  rest  or 
to  become  an  indulgent  enjoyment.  If.  however,  the 
energy  is  now  a  match  to  the  oppositions,  or  rather 
if  man  now  becomes  superior  to  them  through  the 

presence  of    the    Divine    Life    this   constant    struggle 

becomes  an  incessant  conquest  ;  the  whole  life  shapes 
itself  into  a  heroic  deed  ;  suffering  with  its  persistence 
can  indeed  <list  urb  and  destroy,  but  cannot  check  a  final 
affirmation.  In  the  greal  works  of  music  we  often 
observe  tin  fundamental  theme  develop  and  maintain 
itself  through  ;i  seeming  chaos  of  tones  and  conflicting 
discords  and  also,  in  the  very  conquest  the  conflict  <l<»  a 
notaltogether  vanish,  but  sounds  on  and  on,  yet  now  .-is 
something  overcome,  until  ;ii  last  the  harmony  finally 

triumphs. 


498  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

3.   The  Religious  Interpretation  of  Life  and 

the  World 

The  religious  solution  of  the  problem  of  life,  with 
its  strengthening  of  the  good  and  its  raising  above 
evil,  contains  in  no  manner  an  explanation  and  justi- 
fication of  evil.  In  order  to  do  this  it  would  be 
necessary  to  demonstrate  that  evil  passes  entirely 
into  the  good,  and  that  in  spite  of  all  hostile  appear- 
ances it  finally  shows  itself  as  a  means  of  the  good — 
as  a  means  by  which  we  reach  the  depth  of  the  good. 
A  proof  of  this  is  not,  however,  found.  Also  within 
Christianity  men  have  often  troubled  themselves  over 
this  problem.  Suffering  and  guilt  were  supposed  to 
be  the  only  means  of  moving  the  Highest  to  unlock 
His  love  and  grace  ;  and  upon  the  human  side,  only 
grave  guilt  seemed  to  invest  the  feeling  of  need 
with  an  inwardness  and  a  longing  after  deliverance 
through  overpowering  energy,  as  is  explained  in  the 
parable  of  the  prodigal  son.  Thus  guilt  itself  could 
be  extolled  as  fruit-bearing  (feliv)  because  it  had 
brought  forth  such  a  redeemer.  A  more  philosophical 
and  far-reaching  mode  of  thought,  however,  could 
wish  for  a  contrast  of  evil  over  against  the  full  develop- 
ment of  the  good,  just  as  a  dark  background  is  con- 
trasted with  a  clear  light.  "  Who  can  speak  of  joy 
who  has  felt  no  pain,  or  of  peace  who  has  not  seen  or 
experienced  strife  ?  "  (Jacob  Boehme). 

Certainly  such  a  mode  of  thinking  is  able  to  call 
upon  many  experiences  within  the  human  circle  in 
favour  of  its  claim.  An  ascent  of  life  may  often  result 
more  easily  from  a  precipitous  fall  with  its  scars  than 
from    the   stagnation   of   daily    routine.       Evil    may 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION  AND  LIFE      499 

exercise  a  stirring  power,  and  along  with  this,  point 
out  the  path  of  goodness ;  suffering  and  guilt  may 
occasionally  be  conducive  to  the  inner  advance  of 
life  and  to  the  formation  of  a  new  nature.  But 
that  they  are  always  this,  or  that  they  are  pre- 
eminently this,  is  demonstrated  in  no  manner.  How 
often  evil  with  its  acute  growth  increases  its  grip 
upon  man  and  fetters  him  for  ever!  And  how 
dangerous  would  such  a  teaching  concerning  evil  as 
a  necessary  gate  to  the  domain  of  the  good  become 
if  it  were  raised  to  a  doctrine  and  precept !  Also,  in 
the  totality  of  the  world's  order,  we  dare  not  consider 
evil  as  an  indispensable  means  for  the  furtherance 
of  the  good.  An  Almighty  Love,  according  to  the 
conviction  of  religion,  governs  the  world.  And  this 
Almighty  Love  could  not  unlock  ils  depth  otherwise 
than  through  the  admission  of  guilt  and  suffering, 
in  order  then  to  oppose  them  utterly.  Would  not 
the  Divine,  through  this,  bend  under  the  power 
of  a  destiny  which  had  prescribed  its  path?  Do 
we  not  step  here  into  a  web  of  anthropomorphic 
ideas?  And  would  not  such  ;m  explanation  place 
in  the  very  constitution  of  the  universe  Hie  deadly 
proposition  that  the  good  " end "  justified  the  evil 
means?  Such  an  explanation  sets  a  greater  puzzle 
than  it.  attempts  to  solve. 

In  reality,  such  an  explanation  of  evil  corre 
sponds  far  more  to  the  desire  of  speculation  than 
t,,  thai  of  religion.  The  inner  elevation  above  evil 
suffices  religion;  religion  must  refuse  everything 
that  weakens  the  edge  of  the  opposites  and  the 
tension  of  the  struggle.  And  the  reduction  of 
evil    to    ;i    means  for   realising    the    ,^<hkI    is   such 


500  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

a  weakening — a  weakening  which  threatens  to  trans- 
form the  mighty  world-struggle  into  an  artistic 
arrangement  of  things  and  into  an  effeminate  play, 
and  which  takes  away  that  bitterness  from  evil  with- 
out which  there  is  no  strenuousness  in  the  struggle 
and  no  virility  in  the  life.  Thus  it  remains  perma- 
nently true  that  religion  does  not  so  much  explain 
as  presuppose  evil.  As  religion  sees  the  acme  of 
suffering  in  guilt,  therefore  it  is  inclined  to  seek  the 
deepest  root  of  evil  in  guilt.  But  this  is  only  a  mere 
pushing  back  of  the  problem,  and  is  no  explanation ; 
indeed,  every  attempt  at  a  didactic  fashioning  of  the 
problem  leads  to  impossibilities.  If  man,  by  his  fall, 
is  considered  to  have  brought  the  whole  world  to 
deterioration,  religion  is  in  danger  of  sinking  into  a 
mythology. 

If  religion  heightens  rather  than  lessens  the  view 
of  the  unreason  of  our  existence,  yet  it  brings  a  certain 
relief  through  the  enlargement  of  the  conception  of 
reality — through  the  opening  out  of  a  new  world-per- 
spective. To  those  epochs  whose  thoughts  and 
tendencies  were  turned  tenaciously  towards  another 
world,  hope  and  conviction  could  hold  that  all  suffering 
in  the  present  world  will  find  overflowing  compensa- 
tion in  a  future  glory.  Why  of  course  this  suffering 
exists,  remains  dark.  Help  was  sought  in  the 
thought  that  through  all  suffering,  and  even  all 
guilt,  our  training  is  more  and  more  completed, 
that  what  appears  at  the  outset  as  hardness  may 
finally  serve  the  aims  of  love,  that  much  which 
astonishes  us  as  being  a  Divine  command  proves 
itself  finally  as  a  means  for  the  elevation  of  our  life. 
But  this  is  no   more  than   a   possibility.     And  why 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION  AND  LIFE       50J 

should  this  supposed  education  need  such  a  circuitous 

route  if  an  absolute  reason  directs  our  Life  '.  Thus 
we  roam  in  the  midst  of  explanatory  attempts  in 
the  region  of  mere  possibilities  ;  and  these  possi- 
bilities lead  towards  dangerous  reefs  the  more  we 
follow  them.  The  matter  ever  comes  to  this,  that 
religion  places  evil  in  quite  another  light,  but  that  it 
explains  and  interprets  it  in  no  way. 

Further,  religion  does  not  solve  the  riddle  of  the 
universe.  The  unfinished  state  of  the  whole— the 
gradual  and  toilsome  "  becoming " — turns  into  a 
difficult  problem.  And  the  "becoming"  itself  is 
full  of  entanglements:  stage  raises  itself  above  stage, 
but  the  lower  becomes  no  pure  ascent  to  the  higher 
but  maintains  an  independence  over  against  it  and 
holds  the  movement  rigid  in  itself,  and,  indeed, 
threatens  to  draw  back  to  itself  all  further  effort. 
The  kingdom  of  nature  constructs  the  foundation  of 
an  immeasurable  extension  and  strikes  its  roots  into 
the   psychic   life,  and    in  this  the  sway  of  mechanism 

is  found;  what  points  to  the  lawfulness  of  pheno- 
mena, to  the  universal  causal  connection,  and  to 
the  construction   of  durable   forms  from  a  greater 

depth,  remains  permanently  in   an    inaccessible   back 

ground.     With  the  appearance  of  the  Spiritual  Life 

a  great  turn  results,  but  this  Life  remains  tied  to 
the  inadequate  human  form  and  succeeds  but  in  a 
toilsome  way  towards  a  mediocre  self  n  Inner.  And 
it  is  able   to   maintain    this   self-reliance   only  in  so  far 

as  man  within  his  own  domain  progresses  from  a 
universal  mode  to  a  concentrated  mode  of  viewing 

thmgs,   and   only   in   so   Bar  ;is   he  withdraws  from 

contact     with     the    world    of    semblance     to     :i     pure 


502  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

self-subsistence.  This,  however,  seems  to  be  not  so 
much  to  take  possession  of  the  world  as  to  be  earned 
out  of  it. 

In  this  gradation  the  more  developed  stages,  on 
account  of  their  richer  content,  will  deem  themselves 
more  highly  valued,  and  will  claim  to  govern  the  lower 
stages.  Thus  especially  the  Spiritual  Life  would  like 
to  handle  nature  as  a  mere  means  for  its  own  aims. 
But  nature  maintains  its  independence  over  against 
the  Spiritual  Life  and  follows,  as  we  have  already 
observed,  its  own  course  heedless  of  all  spiritual  values. 
Similarly,  within  the  Spiritual  Life,  the  universal  kind 
of  spirituality  maintains  itself  over  against  the  con- 
centrated or  characteristic  mode,  and  such  a  general 
mode  refuses  to  become  a  means  and  a  preparatory 
stage  for  the  concentrated  mode.  Whence,  save  on 
account  of  this,  is  the  pointed  opposition  to  religion 
found  even  within  the  Spiritual  Life  ?  Thus  the 
world-process  itself  seems  to  become  narrowed  and 
entangled  in  itself:  what  strives  upwards  within  the 
world-process  is  not  able  to  carry  the  whole  domain 
of  reality  along  with  itself,  and  it  consequently  steps 
into  a  situation  of  the  most  insecure  nature. 

Such  an  entanglement  strikes  also  into  the  method 
of  investigation,  and  places  it  under  conflicting 
motives.  At  one  time,  the  higher  is  explained  out  of 
the  lower ;  at  another  time,  the  lower  is  explained 
out  of  the  higher.  The  former  view  has  the  im- 
mediate impression  of  experience  on  its  side ;  the 
latter  view  calls  to  its  own  superiority  for  its  better 
right  as  an  explanation,  but  as  soon  as  it  carries  its 
conceptions  within  the  domain  of  the  lower,  it  dis- 
turbs the  particular  mode  of  operation  of  the  lower 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION  AND  LIFE      508 

and  seems  to  drag  human  qualities  into  the  domain 
of  the  lower.  Thus  the  various  views  of  the  universe 
enter  into  an  irreconcilable  contradiction  ;  each  view 
can  injure  the  other  views,  but  no  single  view  is  able 
to  conquer  completely. 

Within  our  human  reality  the  entanglement  grows 
further,  because  here  the  higher  stage  remains  depen- 
dent on  the  lower  for  its  own  preservation,  and  is 
not  able  within  our  world  with  all  its  superiority  to 
create  an  existence  from  out  of  its  own  energies.  The 
spiritual  nature  must  ever  anew  achieve  the  means 
for  the  maintenance  of  its  life,  and  is  thus  drawn  back 
and  pinned  down  to  that  which  it  feels  inwardly  it 
has  passed  long  ago.  Even  concentrated  spirituality 
whose  stable  support  is  constructed  by  religion  needs 
universal  spirituality,  beyond  which,  nevertheless,  it 
intends  to  lead  us;  for  without  this  basis  and  the  in- 
dispensable help  which  it  oilers,  concentrated  spirit- 
uality is  in  danger  of  fading  and,  indeed,  of  forfeiting 
its  spiritual  character. 

The  entanglement  reaches  its  climax,  however, 
when  the  lower  penetrates  into  the  heart  of  the 
higher  and  gains  strength  for  it  sell  when  the 
Spiritual     Life  sets   unspiritual   aims    before    itself. 

Then  the  natural  is  refined,  and  sell -presen  at  ion 
heightens   into  selfishness  ;  and  then   evil   is   no   mere 

departure  from  the  good,  but  grows  into  an  entire 
pen  ersion. 

[fall  this  were  only  b  matter  of  aesthetic  reflection, 

the  sublimity  of  the  spectacle  could  be  willingl) 
acknowledged.      The   scene  would  then  appear  as    the 

broad  ground  of  nature  developing  unerringly  into 
simple  iron    laws,  drawing  all    effort   back  i"   itself, 


504  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

and  appearing  entirely  indifferent  towards  all  which 
man  rails  good  or  evil.  But  on  the  contrary,  a 
Spiritual  Life  grows  beyond  the  world-process,  en- 
genders an  inwardness  out  of  itself  and  turns  towards 
it,  shapes  a  new  reality  but  in  the  shaping  narrows 
and  even  destroys  much  of  it,  withdraws  from  its 
ascent,  denies  it  affirmations,  resigns  its  toilsome 
work,  and  allows  itself  to  be  overthrown.  All  this 
appears  as  an  ebb  and  flow — a  colossal  picture  in  life 
and  death.  But  is  it  all  a  mere  picture — a  mere 
play?  It  is  an  awful  self-contradiction,  a  tragic 
deception,  an  empty  phantasmagoria,  if  it  claims  to 
be  taken  seriously  and  if  it  encloses  in  itself  the  whole 
of  our  life  and  being,  and  if  it  signifies  the  ultimate 
and  the  whole  of  all  things.  We  are  not  able,  how- 
ever, to  view  it  other  than  with  seriousness. 

If  all  this,  with  all  its  darkness,  is  not  able  to  brow- 
beat religion,  religion  must  be  considered  in  its  inward 
nature  superior  to  that  whole  province,  and  it  must 
prove  its  superiority  through  the  construction  of  a 
new  reality.  We  need  only  touch  here  on  the  point 
which  our  investigation  attempted  to  show,  viz.,  that 
religion  not  merely  gathers  together  certain  elements 
at  hand,  but  that,  through  the  inauguration  of  an 
independent  spirituality,  it  brings  forth  something 
essentially  new ;  life  and  the  world  are  transformed 
from  their  very  foundations.  As  the  whole  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  gathers  itself  together  in  religion  and 
brings  itself  to  expression,  a  new  standard  and  a  new 
content  are  gained  by  life.  What  was  imbedded  in 
existence  prior  to  the  advent  of  the  Spiritual  Life 
but  was  isolated  and  scattered,  narrowed  and  dis- 
figured, insecure  and  dependent,  is  through  its  union 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION  AND  LIFE      505 

with  the  Divine  raised  to  a  fuller  sell-reliance,  to  a 
purer  formation,  and  to  a  more  consolidated  position, 
so  that  it  is  now  able  to  work  as  an  energy  for  con- 
solidating and  elevating,  for  selecting  and  rejecting. 
The  dawning  of  new  possibilities  which  result  here  is 
itself  a  fundamental  fact,  and  renders  insufficient 
what  hitherto  satisfied  ;  it  reduces  in  value  what 
hitherto  stood  in  secure  estimation.  The  ascendins 
aspiration  found  in  religion  after  an  appropriation  of 
the  whole  of  infinity — after  a  life  from  out  of  the 
soul  of  reality— breaks  away  step  by  step  from  what 
hitherto  captivated  man.  The  working  rights  of  civic- 
life  sink  to  the  level  of  a  merely  preparatory  stage 
or  to  a  caricature  of  the  genuine  culmination  of  life 
with  its  essential  and  world-encompassing  love;  the 
truth  in  which  the  ordinary  routine  of  science  finds 
satisfaction  becomes  a  mere-  semblance  and  shadow 
when  face  to  face  witli  the  genuine  truth  which  opens 
out  the  inner  nature  of  things,  and  which  transforms 
these  things  into  the  soul.  And  ;ilso.  genuine  Art 
becomes  an  inner  community  of  life  with  things  it 
becomes  a  new  ••  becoming"  which  lies  on  the  other 
side  of  all  mere  gratification  and  case.  There  results 
thus  a  thorough  and  new  fundamental  relationship  to 
reality-  an  essentially  new  life.  This  New.  however, 
draws  to  itself  from  the  situation  of  experience  .-ill  thai 
if  can  appropriate;  it  drives  asunder  tin-  opposites 
and  it  places  the  confusion  of  things  before  an  Eithei 
Or\  and  it  manifests  its  energy  in  stimulation  and 
movement.  Simultaneously  we  discover  a  raising  of 
characteristic  features  <>nt  of  the  depth,  .-in  insighl 
into  values  and  essentials,  a  simplification  of  reality, 

and  a  penel  ral  ing  concent  ration  of  life.      A  II  tins  is  an 


506  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

actual  current  which  can  never  issue  from  the  mere 
reflection  or  mood  of  man  but  is  a  fact  which  gives 
man,  in  the  midst  of  all  his  unreadiness,  the  con- 
scious certainty  of  his  relationship  to  a  higher  order. 
How  the  view  of  the  world  and  the  task  of  life, 
through  such  a  turn,  alter  their  content  in  accordance 
with  the  main  tendency  revealed  is  to  be  further 
explained. 

Religion  as  the  inauguration  of  an  over- world  life 
is  no  Weltanschauung.  As  it  is  unable  to  prove 
fully  its  own  higher  Divine  order  from  the  con- 
dition of  the  universe,  it  presents  no  explanation 
of  this  condition.  But  it  is  not  able  to  make  the 
over- world  life  the  kernel  of  reality  (not  the  kernel  of 
an  isolated  province)  unless  it  transforms  its  total  view 
of  reality,  unless  it  brings  the  whole  into  a  new  light, 
and  rearranges  the  relationships  of  the  various  sides 
of  life  to  each  other.  Religion  places  a  Whole  in  front 
of  all  the  manifold,  and  understands  this  manifold  as 
an  expression  of  such  a  Whole  ;  it  will  emphasise  and 
bring  to  effect  all  that  reveals  itself  in  the  relationships 
and  connections  of  the  elements  of  the  world.  The 
laws  of  phenomena  and  their  causal  nexus  become  now 
testimonies  to  a  unity  of  the  Whole ;  and  so  may  be 
said  of  the  possibility  of  a  reciprocal  understanding 
within  the  domain  of  the  spirit,  and  the  possibility  of 
an  inner  conjoint  work :  they  point  towards  a  unity 
which  carries  and  brings  together  all  the  manifold. 
But  before  all  else,  as  we  have  already  seen,  each  indi- 
vidual appears  now  not  merely  as  a  link  in  a  chain  but 
also  as  being  in  intimate  relationship  to  the  Whole, 
and,  consequently,  as  being  in  himself  of  intrinsic 
value  and  precious  ;  along  with  this,  the  individual  is 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION  AND  LIFE      501 

able  to  form  his  own  ends,  and  an  aesthetic  insight  of 
things  with  its  apprehension  of  infinity  is  founded  in 
the  individual  situation.  Finally,  this  Whole  within 
the  Spiritual  Life  is  able  to  become,  in  the  form  of 
immediacy,  a  characteristic  personal  experience  and  a 
self-reliant  deed ;  it  is  able  to  work  against  placing 
all  the  inferences  of  life  within  the  narrowness  of  any 
particular  or  isolated  circle.  Without  the  presence 
of  the  Infinite  there  would  be  no  striving  after  truth, 
no  energy  for  the  good  or  for  love  over  against 
egotistic  utility. 

Similar  transformations  occur  in  the  relationship  of 
rest  and  movement.  The  world  appears  to  modern 
reflection  as  a  process  existing  in  incessant  change. 
Religion,  on  the  contrary,  proclaims  an  eternal  order, 
and  understands  movement  as  an  expression  of  this 
eternal  order.  Again,  there  comes  here  prominently 
forward  for  the  first  time  into  a  persistent  form  what 
the  world-configuration  contains  as  substance  and  law. 
so  that  the  movement  itself  cannot  become  a  personal 
experience  without  a  standpoint  superior  to  it.  And 
there  is  no  genuine  experience  of  history,  and  con- 
sequently no  history  of  a  spiritual  kind,  without  an 
order  of  things  which  lciins  to  survey,  connect,  and 
deepen  tin-  conditions  of  things.  Along  with  this, 
the  total  view  of  occurrences   transforms   itself.      The 

higher,   which   appears    t<>    an    empirical    considers 

tion    of    tin-    world    as   a   mere   evidence   of   ;i    process. 

gains  through  religion  an  independence  and  superi 
ority.     Because  religion  develops  ;i  self  subsistence  "i 
reality  and   stands  out   in  bold  relief  from  .ill  mere 

nature   and    from   all    that    is  unspiritual,   it    ."know 

ledges    in   movement    qualitative   transformations 


508  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

essential  enhancements — and  it  brings  men,  at  the  same 
time,  to  the  discernment  that  what  happened  within  the 
spiritual  domain  happens  also  in  connection  with  the 
whole  of  reality,  viz.,  that  the  result  is  somehow  a 
principle — a  principle  that  must  be  the  presupposition 
and  driving  energy  of  the  movement  whenever  any- 
thing shall  issue  out  of  the  movement,  as  in  reality 
something  does  issue  out  of  it.  Because  such  a  con- 
viction, arising  out  of  religion,  wends  its  wray  towards 
the  world,  it  will  everywhere  carry  forth  the  Character- 
istic and  the  New  which  the  progress  of  the  process 
brings  with  itself;  it  will  understand  the  development 
not  as  a  result  of  the  lower  but  as  an  ascent  to  a 
higher  stage — as  a  breaking  forth  of  such  a  stage ;  it 
will  not  bind  the  situation  of  experience  to  the  mere 
level  on  which  experience  now  stands,  but  will  guide 
it  beyond  its  present  situation.  Culture  appears  as 
such  a  course  of  thought :  it  is  not  a  mere  bettering 
of  a  mere-human  existence  but  an  ascending  tendency 
towards  a  new  world  ;  the  spiritual  greatness  which 
occurs  in  history  appears  now  not  as  a  mere  More  of  the 
commonplaces  of  the  environment  but  as  the  inaugu- 
ration of  a  self-reliant  spiritual  world  over  against 
such  commonplaces.  Thus,  all  that  life  contains  for 
its  inner  ascent  clarifies  and  connects  itself  together 
through  religion.  And  as  religion,  through  such  a 
mode  of  thinking  within  its  own  domain,  trans- 
forms the  movement,  from  a  drifting  along  towards 
vagueness,  from  a  meaningless  hurry  to  a  return  to 
itself,  and  along  with  this  brings  life  to  an  inner 
rest,  so  will  religion  work  against  the  abandonment 
of  things  to  the  mere  movement,  and  it  will  be- 
come the  focussing  point  of  all  that  gives  stability 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION   AND  LIFE      509 

to   life,  and  invests  all   effort   after   a   consolidation 
with  more  meaning  and  reason. 

Religion  has  opened  out  an  intimate  relationship 
with  an  Infinite  and  Absolute  Life,  and  has  given 
our  life  an  originality  over  against  all  the  attempts 
to  classify  it  within  the  causal  nexus.  As  religion 
thus  places  man  between  two  worlds,  it  calls  him  to 
a  self-decision  and  makes  freedom  for  the  first  time 
possible,  for  freedom  remains  an  empty  delusion  so 
long  as  we  are  only  pieces  of  a  merely  "  given  world. 
And,  for  the  first  time,  religion  furnishes  the  possibility 
of  an  inner  renewal  and  of  a  new  beginning  through 
a  contact  with  an  inexhaustible  depth.  As  thus 
worlds  come  to  a  focus  within  the  deepest  inwardness 
of  the  soul,  and  as  freedom  becomes  a  portion  of  our 
spiritual  self-preservation,  then  this  ennobles  every 
effort  after  freedom  and  strengthens  the  confidence 
in  the  possibility  of  an  inner  renewal  throughout  the 
whole  breadth  of  life.  How  much  we  arc  in  need 
of  such  a  confidence,  since  even  the  most  brilliant 
civilisation  finally  outlives  itself,  and  since  mankind 
even  amidst  the  greatest  richness  of  results  be- 
comes inwardly  sterile!  And,  further,  tlic  whole  of 
life  gains  immensely   in   stimulation    and    tension,   in 

meaning  and   value;    it    passes  oui    of  merely   ex 

tenia]  occurrences  lo  a  genuine  lite  of  its  own  where 
it  transforms  itself  in  I  lie  Struggle  between  an 
old  and  a  new  world,  between  originality  and  im- 
posed conditions,  between  its  own  i\vrd  and  the 
process  of  nature.  For  "without  llie  contradiction 
of  necessity  and  freedom,  not  only  philosophy  but 
every  higher  will  of  the  spirit   would  sink  into  death 

(Schelling). 


510  CHARACTERISTIC   HKLIGION 

Keligion  founds  the  whole  of  reality  upon  a  cosmic 
inner  life.  The  fact  that  religion  preserves  such  a 
depth  within  us  must  be  discovered  through  the 
presence  also  of  more  inwardness  in  the  rest  of 
life,  and  everything  must  be  strengthened  which 
aspires  after  such  a  depth.  Certainly,  religion  does 
not  carry  every  outer  into  an  inner,  every  visible 
thing  into  the  invisible ;  but  in  the  midst  of  the 
visible  an  invisible  kingdom  can  be  present,  which 
sees  more  and  more  in  the  visible,  and  which  enables 
the  visible  to  produce  new  effects.  We  have  already 
observed  how  Art  especially  wrested  a  soul  from  the 
external,  and  simultaneously  opened  out  a  new  king- 
dom of  life.  And  in  this  connection,  too,  does  the 
progressive  deepening  which  is  visible  in  life  every- 
where find  its  true  interpretation  and  its  full  acknow- 
ledgment. Thus  the  facts  themselves  illumine  them- 
selves and  gain  an  energy  for  our  efforts,  so  that  in 
the  advance  of  the  movement  the  Inner  ceases  more 
and  more  to  be  a  mere  addendum  of  the  sensuous 
world,  and  becomes  the  main  standard  of  life,  and 
through  this  culminates  in  an  effective  re-valuation 
of  all  value  and  excellences. 

Such  a  progress  would  not  have  been  possible 
without  the  differentiation  of  a  substantial  and 
intrinsic  inwardness  from  a  subjective  and  empty 
inwardness.  The  foundation  of  such  a  genuine  in- 
wardness is  secured  only  through  the  acknowledgment 
of  an  independent  inner  world  as  is  represented  by 
religion.  In  order  to  bring  this  truth  to  clearness, 
it  has  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  inwardness  not 
only  engenders  new  contents  and  values,  but  in  the 
main  it  makes  in  the  first  place  these  contents  and 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION  AND  LIFE      511 

values  possible.  These  values  could  never  happen 
from  without,  and  could  never  originate  out  of 
man's  mere  contact  with  external  things,  but  they 
require  an  inwardness  grounded  in  the  soul  itself. 
But  this  truth  is  not  able  to  find  a  secure  basis  in 
religion  unless  its  effects  and  sway  illumine  clearly 
the  remainder  of  life,  and  connect  themselves 
energetically  together.  Thus,  to  all  striving  belongs 
an  actual  necessity  over  against  a  merely  subjective 
opinion  and  inclination  as  presented  in  science  and 
art,  law  and  morality.  Where  otherwise  lies  and 
works  that  actual  necessity  save  in  the  characteristic 
inwardness  of  the  spirit  of  man  \  It  is  out  of  this 
source  alone  that  conceptions  such  as  personality  and 
spiritual  individuality  gain  an  independence  and  a 
characteristic  content  over  against  mere  nature,  and 
are  able  to  obtain  a  value  in  what  takes  place  within 
themselves.  And  it  is  from  the  same  source  that, 
the  standpoint  and  the  inner  scope  of  life,  which  all 
genuine  spiritual  work  presupposes,  are  explained.  For 
these  dare  not  make  either  the  external  result  or  the 
merely  subjective  welfare  their  own  final  end  without 
becoming    inwardly  degraded   and.   indeed,    inwardly 

destroyed    [f  they  are  ever  to  maintain  a  self-reliance 

against   carnal    appetites    without     and    within,   and    if 

they  are  to  preserve  the  results  of  their  labour  from 

falling  into  emptiness,  they  must  stand  within  an 
inner  world,  and  find  their  entire  satisfaction  in  the 
further    development     Of    such    a    world    and     in     t  he 

incorporation  of  it   within  the  human  circle.     Thus, 
the  whole  of  life  exhibits  a  struggle  between  h  sub 
jective   and   a   substantial   inwardness.     The    latter, 
however,  appears   the  greater,  and   gains   in  energ) 


512  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

when  it  finds  through  religion  a  firm  centre  and,  at 
the  same  time,  a  closer  bond  of  union. 

The  movement  against  the  mere  humanising  of  our 
existence — a  movement  which  penetrates  all  spiritual 
effort— stands  in  close  relationship  with  what  we 
have  just  discussed.  For  we  could  not  speak  at  all 
of  truth  over  against  mere  opinion,  or  of  good  over 
against  mere  utility,  unless  there  is  some  point  of 
departure  from  the  limits  of  mere  humanity,  and  unless 
there  is  an  acknowledgment  of  a  truth  beyond  man 
himself.  But  what  is  maintained  in  this  statement  is 
impossible  of  realisation  without  raising  the  Spiritual 
Life  from  the  narrowness  and  subjection  of  its  human 
mode  ;  and  this  religion  does  through  the  acknow- 
ledgment of  a  superhuman  origin  of  the  Spiritual 
Life.  As,  then,  the  wonderful  seems  now  possible  to 
religion,  religion  must  now  strengthen  the  power  as 
well  as  the  positive  assurance  of  all  effort  to  reach  it. 
Now  for  the  first  time  it  can  be  fully  realised  that  all 
genuine  spiritual  culture  undertakes  a  struggle  against 
the  petty-human,  and  that  the  progress  into  the 
spiritual  presents  itself  as  an  ever-further  repression  of 
thepetty-human,  and  that  especiallymodern times  form 
atthis  point  a  sharp  dividing-line.  Its  great  thinkers — 
a  Spinoza,  a  Kant,  and  a  Hegel — set  their  best  energy 
upon  the  attempt  to  bring  life  to  such  a  point  where 
all  the  isolation  and  limitation  of  man  fall  away,  and 
where  a  spiritual  content  of  a  universal  kind  and  of 
an  absolute  validity  opens  itself  out. 

Thus  religion,  all  along  the  line,  throws  a  new 
light  upon  life  ;  new  aspects  of  life  become  prominent 
in  this  light,  and  bind  together  elements  otherwise 
isolated  ;  more  aspiring  reason  comes  into  existence, 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION  AND  LITE     513 

and  more  simplicity  and  greatness  are  discovered. 
The  concentration  which  grows  through  religion 
works  beyond  itself  into  the  whole  of  life,  and  binds 
all  the  manifold  more  energetically  into  a  total  activity. 
Life  as  a  whole  thus  gains  a  new  total  view,  and 
appears  now  more  than  a  mere  movement  within  a 
given  circle — more  than  a  maintenance,  an  enjoyment, 
or  an  ornamentation  of  natural  existence ;  it  appears 
as  an  apprehension  of  a  new  and  essentially  differenl 
world,  and,  indeed,  as  an  entire  inversion  of  all  prior 
existence.  This  does  not  mean  that  all  existing 
things  enter  into  such  an  ascent,  as  an  optimistic 
evolutionary  doctrine  asserts,  but  it  does  mean  that 
a  connected  movement  to  a  new  height  arises,  and 
carries  with  itself  an  immense  current  of  actuality — a 
current  which  could  never  be  produced  by  the  re- 
flection of  mere  man. 

The  fact  that  religion  thus  appears  as  the  height 
and  the  animating  soul  of  a  wider  life  and  th.it  it 
illumines,  collects,  and  strengthens  so  much,  may 
be  greeted  as  a  corroboration  of  its  own  truth.  Hut 
it  dare  not  base  its  truth  upon  that  wider  lite, 
as   has    often    been    attempted    and    has    called    forth 

inevitable  opposition.     For   in   our   view  the  world 
receives    its    interpretation    only   after    the    develop 
merit     and     consolidation     of     tin-    absolute     life     by 

religion;  unless  this  fact  is  observed,  the  proof  is 
searched  for  in  the  empirical  situation,  which  ma) 
suggest   the  greater  depth   represented  by  religion; 

but,  prior  to  the  appearance  of  religion,  this  More 
of  religion  remains  an  obscure  background,  BJld 
it  is  thus  a  hap  of  thought  aloin-  thai  Can  give  it 
an    intimate    relationship    to    religion.      Such  a    leap 


514  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

takes  place,  for  instance,  when,  through  the  observa- 
tion of  the  interaction  of  the  elements  in  nature,  it 
is  sought  to  prove  the  existence  of  God  as  the 
connecting  medium ;  or  when,  within  the  organic 
world,  the  existence  of  teleological  tendencies  and 
formations  are  made  to  prove  the  guidance  and 
activity  of  God.  But  we  must  not  forget  that  no 
province  can  prove  anything  outside  its  own  reach, 
and  that  an  attempt  to  do  this  leads  into  anthropo- 
morphism. It  is  similar  with  human  and  historical 
life.  To  him  who  sees  life  in  the  light  of  religion, 
life  itself  becomes  a  verification,  and  he  will  find 
everywhere  indications  of  the  presence  of  an  Infinite 
Life,  but  he  dare  not  reverse  this  method  and  attempt 
to  make  of  an  external  derivative  a  foundation  of 
religion.  To  allow  the  religious  interpretation  and 
the  scientific  explanation  of  the  universe  to  blend 
into  one  injures  not  only  science  but  also  religion. 

We  have  already  witnessed  the  religious  interpreta- 
tion work  in  the  direction  of  consolidating  and  gather- 
ing together,  and  through  this  raising  the  courage 
of  life.  But  an  explanation  or  even  a  diminution 
of  evil  is  not  brought  forth.  But  rather  the  increase 
of  the  action  on  the  good  side  makes  the  opposite  side 
appear  all  the  greater,  and  stronger  than  ever  the 
power  of  destruction  and  of  unreason  comes  promin- 
ently forward.  But  all  this  is  a  gain — and  it  is  no 
small  gain — because  the  matter  is  now  abstracted  from 
man's  subjectivity,  and  a  cosmic  movement  and  a 
cosmic  struggle  have  become  evident.  Mysterious 
as  the  whole  may  appear,  there  cannot  be  a  doubt 
concerning  one's  own  situation  and  task.  Different 
grades  of   reality  meet  within   our   domain,    and  an 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION  AND  LIFE      515 

advance  does  not  result  through  a  restful  further 
development,  but  painful  entanglements  and  per- 
versions retard  the  advance,  and  any  kind  of  success 
is  hoped  for  only  through  a  retreat  to  the  Final 
Cause.  But  we  have  already  noticed  how  such 
a  dependence  of  man  did  not  take  away  his  own 
self-activity,  and  how  in  the  particular  situation 
the  vindication  and  progress  of  the  whole  was  set 
upon  man's  own  act.  Thus  man's  action  gains  a 
mighty  expansion;  he  works  in  the  works  of  the 
All;  indeed,  he  becomes  through  the  Divine  Life 
a  co-carrier  of  Infinity. 

The  movement  seems  hardly  to  make  head-way 
under  such  powerful  hindrances,  and  it  need  not 
frighten  or  dishearten  us  that  it  does  not  compass  the 
whole  of  our  existence  and  that  it  carries  only  a  por- 
tion of  it  along  with  itself.  We  are  still  able  to 
hope,  because  religion  carries  within  itself  a  secure 
eminence  beyond  the  whole  line  of  battle,  and  because 
its  characteristic  truth  is  not  linked  in  the  last  resort 
even  upon  success  in  this  battle.  And  further,  our 
human  world  signifies  to  religion  no  more  than  a  par- 
ticular kind  of  existence,  but  the  unfinished  condition 
of  this  world  signifies  in  no  way  an  utter  absurdity, 

but  is  able  to  gain  some  kind  of  meaning  through  the 
presence  of  a  higher  standpoint ,  and  is  t  hus  turned  to 

soi  net  I  lino-  other  than  a  tangled  chaos.  Certainly,  our 
world  is  no  simple  evolution  of  reason,  but  a  certain 
moving  tendency  in  that  direction  is  not  to  be  denied 

it.       More  and    more   connections   and  more  and  more 

Inwardness  appear  in  bold  relief.  The  Spiritual  Life 
does  not,  indeed,  gain  the  whole  breadth  of  things, 
but   if   unlocks  an  ever  richer  content,  and  affords  a 


516  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

glimpse  into  ever  greater  depths.  But  simultaneously 
the  oppositions  grow  too  ;  the  problems  become  more 
and  more  difficult ;  and  what  previously  seemed  so 
near  and  easily  within  our  reach  recedes  more  and 
more  on  the  horizon.  Is  there  a  greater  difference 
than  this  between  antiquity  and  modern  times :  that 
the  weightiest  questions  seemed  near  solution  to  the 
former,  whilst  with  us  the  goals  recede  ever  farther  ? 
Thus,  the  main  gain  of  the  movement  is  a  heightening 
of  the  problem  ;  and  more  incomplete  our  life  appears. 
But  who  has  given  us  the  certainty  that  our  world 
constitutes  a  completed  Whole,  and  that  it  carries 
its  complete  interpretation  in  itself?  How  is  it,  if 
our  world  is  such,  that  the  problems  are  to  be  vigor- 
ously worked  out,  that  the  energies  prepare  themselves 
and  set  themselves  against  one  another,  and  that  the 
opposites  gain  so  much  in  clearness  ?  Then,  indeed, 
the  whole  of  this  world  would  be  but  a  beginning,  and 
might  be  compared  to  the  development  of  the  plot  of 
a  drama  :  the  further  development  is  lost  for  us  in 
darkness,  but  religion  has  no  doubt  as  to  the  final 
consummation.  Thus  we  do  not  deal  of  course  with 
the  consummation ;  it  is  sufficient  for  us  to  know 
that  what  we  do  is  not  lost.  The  words  of  Luther 
are  valid  for  the  whole  of  life :  "  We  are  not  it  yet, 
but  we  shall  be  it ;  it  is  not  yet  done  and  has  not  yet 
happened,  but  it  is,  however,  on  the  move  and  in  full 
swing ;  it  is  not  the  goal  but  the  road ;  all  is  not 
aglow  and  sparkling,  but  all  is  being  cleansed." 

Religion  may  discover  with  pain  the  fact  that  we 
are  not  able  to  fathom  the  whole ;  yet  on  account 
of  its  basal  conviction  of  the  intimate  presence  of  an 
Absolute    Life,  religion  will    not   allow  itself  to   be 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION   AND  LIFE      517 

overthrown,  but  rather  it  will  derive  the  confidence 
from  such  a  conviction  ;  an  elevated  reason  enforces  its 
way  through  all  the  unreason  and  will  manifest  itself  in 
the  vicissitudes  of  single  souls.  The  darkness  may  even 
be  of  value,  in  view  of  the  actual  condition  of  man,  in 
so  far  as  it  pushes  back  the  idea  of  reward  and  directs 
the  effort  upon  the  content  of  life  itself.  Thus  a 
Kant,  in  a  surveyed  reflection,  could  greet  this  lack 
of  insight  into  the  wider  connections  of  things  as 
a  gain  for  the  purification  of  character,  and  could  give 
expression  to  the  conviction  "that  the  inscrutable 
wisdom  through  which  we  exist  is  not  less  vener- 
able  in  what   it   denies  us   than    in  what   it   allows 

■>■> 
us. 

The  religious  interpretation  of  life,  through  such 
a  course,  will  not  work  towards  the  lessening  but 
towards  the  heightening  of  its  energy,  its  self- reliance. 
and  its  virility.  Where  our  life  carries  within  itself  so 
many  oppositions  and  decisions,  where  so  much  within 
it  has  to  be  awakened  and  strengthened,  where  cosmic 
movements  penetrate  into  our  existence,  and  where  8 
higher  mode  of  existence  has  to  gain  a  place  over 
against  the  ordinary  shallow  routine,  Mm-   task    cannot 

consist  in  prudent  evasion  of  the  entanglements,  in 
brincrinc  things  to  the  sane-  centre  of  gravity,  or  in 
hunting  after  a  smug  happiness.  Bui  it  is  necessary 
to  enter  courageously  into  tin-  greal  struggle,  and  to 
work  without  ceasing  for  the  possession  and  the 
progression  of  the  new  world  of  an  essential  life; 
and   in  the  midst    of  confusion  and   obstruction,  in 

unreadiness    and    darkness,    in    suffering    and    death, 

to  be   fully  certain   of  the   presence  of  an   Eternal 

Life. 


518  CHARACTERISTIC  RELIGION 

4.   Faith  and  Doubt :  The  Denial  of  Religion 

Religion  has  to  prove  its  rights  not  only  against 
certain  propositions  but  against  a  deep-rooted  mode  of 
thinking.     By  this  we  mean,  first  of  all,  that  naive 
fixed  mode  of  thinking  with  its  intelleetual  outlook 
on  the  world — a  mode  of  thinking  which  conceives 
that  the  truth  can  be  determined  independently  of  life, 
and   that   life   can   afterwards   be    led   to   it.     Such 
happens  only  in  connection  with  the  relationship  to  a 
world  existing  outside  ourselves  ;  but,  if  it  is  necessary 
to  conceive  of  the  whole  of  reality  only  as  something 
external    to    ourselves,    then    religion    stands    con- 
demned.    But   it   is  not   only  religion  but  also  the 
whole  of  the  ascending  Spiritual    Life  which  insists 
upon  an  inner  relationship  to  things ;  and  herewith 
the   whole   of    life    comes    to   the    foreground,    and 
determines  also  the  particular  mode  of  thinking — its 
direction  and  formation — in  accordance  with  its  own 
qualities.     If  religion  thus  leads  into  a  characteristic 
conception  of  faith,  such  a  life  in  the  first  place  rests 
upon  a  characteristic  life — upon  a  life  in  the  special 
spiritual  sense — which  carries  within  itself  a  reality, 
and  which  develops  it  out  of  itself.     Religion  is  not  a 
communication   of  over-world    secrets,    but   the   in- 
auguration of  an  over- wo  rid  life ;  and  it  is  with  the 
acknowledgment  and  assimilation  of  such  a  life  that 
faith  has  to  do ;  it  has  to  do  with  an  appropriation 
which  carries  a  synthesis  and  an  ascent  of  man's  own 
nature  as  well  as  an  advancement  and  a  lofty  eleva- 
tion within   itself.     The  new  life   brings   forth  with 
itself  a  new  conception  of  reality,  but  faith  all  along 
proceeds  to  such  a  reality  through  life  alone ;  and  it 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION   AM)  LIFE      519 

is  only  in  the  obscuring  of  this  connection  and  finally 
in  its  dissolution  that  faith  becomes  a  mere  assert  ion 
concerning   things  on  the  other   side   of  this  world, 
and  consequently  succumbs  inevitably  to  the  criticism 
of  knowledge,  whilst  faith  as  a  power  of  life  precedes 
knowledge,  and  it  is  only  out  of  faith  that  knowledge 
becomes  possible.     Such    a   faith    is    not   only  of  a 
stirring   and  progressive,  but  also  of  a  welding  and 
defensive,  nature.     Then  an  unbroken  decision  for  a 
new  life  and  its  appropriation  in  a  Whole  becomes 
a   matter   of  significance,   and    life   maintains    itself 
against  a  hostile  or  indifferent  world  ;  it  holds  itself 
fast  to  invisible  facts  against  the  hard  opposition  of 
visible  existence,  and  to  general    ideas  over  against 
all  the  failures  of  the  nearest-at-hand  achievements. 

If  faith  carries  within  itself  so  much  movement 
and  struggle,  it  is  not  surprising  if  the  matter  docs  qoI 
run  smoothly,  if  hindrances  and  deadlocks  obtrude, 
if  faith  and  doubt  set  themselves  against  one  another, 
and  if  the  soul  is  set  in  a  painful  dilemma.  Doubt, 
in  these  connections,  does  not  appear  as  something 
monstrous  and  atrocious,  though  it  would  appear  so 
if  a  perfect  circle  of  ideas  presented  itself  to  man 
and  demanded   his  assent  as  a  bounden  duty.     For 

where   it   is   necessary   to  lay   hold   on   a   new  life  and 

to  brim?  to  consummation  an  inward  transformation, 
then  a  personal   experience  and    testing  are  needed. 

But    no   proof    is  definite   which   clings   from    the   be 

ginning   to    the    final    result,   and    places  on    one   side 
all   possibility   of  an    antithesis.      The  opposite   DOSsi« 

bility  must  be  thought  out  and  lived  through  if  the 
Yea    is    to    possess    full    energy    and    genuineness. 

Thus    doubt    becomes    a     necessary,    if    also    an    lift 


520  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

comfortable,  companion  of  religion  ;  it  is  indispensable 
for  the  conservation  of  the  full  freshness  and  original- 
ity of  religion — -for  the  freeing  of  religion  from  con- 
ventional forms  and  phrases  which  would  lead  the 
mighty  current  into  well-ordered  channels  but  which 
easily  cause  it  to  be  lost  in  the  sands. 

The  history  of  religion  presents  us  with  a  corrobora- 
tion of  this  estimate.  For  it  shows  only  a  mediocre 
kind  of  the  religious  life  as  being  unassailable  by 
any  doubt — a  life  inclined  to  a  pharisaic  superiority  ; 
and  to  such  a  life  the  stern  suppression  of  all  doubt 
or  even  of  any  problem  seemed  necessary  for  the  con- 
solidation of  its  own  belief.  But  on  the  contrary,  many 
creative  spirits — for  instance,  Augustine  and  Luther 
— had  much  trouble  with  doubt.  This  was  so,  not 
because  their  impetus  towards  religion  was  less 
strong,  but  because,  by  means  of  the  greater  strength 
of  such  an  impetus,  they  saw  through  the  inadequacy 
of  all  the  props  which  give  the  feeling  of  certainty 
to  the  average  man,  and  because  they  longed  for 
something  essentially  secure,  intimately  present, 
and  free  from  every  human  error,  in  order  to 
posit  their  life  upon  it  and  in  order  to  defy  even 
death  itself.  It  was  only  through  the  possession  of 
such  a  goal  that  these  leaders  could  become  other 
than  they  were ;  but  the  realisation  of  such  a  goal 
claimed  the  greatest  toil  and  a  fearless  analysis  of 
doubt.  And  even  with  all  this,  no  complete  rest 
was  gained.  What  was  as  steadfast  as  the  rock  in 
the  depth  of  the  soul,  experienced  temptations  ever 
anew  from  a  surrounding  world  which  never  allowed 
the  soul  a  rest.  So  that  the  certainty  constitutes  no 
inert  possession,  but  has  ever  anew  to  be  struggled 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION   AND  LIFE 

for  and  ever  anew  has  to  wrestle  with  doubt.  "  I 
believe,  Lord  ;  help  Thou  mine  unbelief":  this  is  the 
best  expression  of  the  situation  of  the  soul  which  finds 
itself  in  such  struggles. 

To  bring  forth  tangible  signs  and  wonders  to  the 
aid  of  threatened  belief  was  a  very  natural  and  con- 
genial thought  to  a  naive  frame  of  mind.  Hut  witli 
closer  reflection,  the  observation  renders  this  situation 
precarious  because  now  external  wonders  have  with- 
drawn entirely  from  the  heights  of  spiritual  creative- 
ness — from  the  inner  wonder  of  the  Spiritual  Life 
and  from  the  intimate  presence  of  a  Divine  World. 
The  founders  of  religion  have  themselves  protested 
against  a  craving  after  such  sensuous  signs.  "Go 
thither  and  hush  up  about  your  good  works,  and 
make  a  clean  breast  before  the  people  of  the  sins  you 
have  committed,  for  that  is  the  true  wonder."  These 
were  the  words  of  the  Buddha;  and  Mahomet  would 
perform  no  wonders,  but  looked  upon  the  giv.it  works 
of  (iod  in  nature  and  in  the  human  soul  as  the-  true 
signs  and  wonders  which  man  is  called  to  believe  in. 
How  did  Jesus  blame  those  who  craved  for  wonders 
and  who  had  mixed  up  his  Life's  work  with   signs  and 

wonders?      "An     evil    and    adulterous    generation 

seeketh  after  a  sign  ;  and  there  shall  no  sign  begi\<  D 

to   it    but    the   sign   of  Jonah   the   prophet."    This 

is  no  other  than  the  sign  of  Spiritual  power  and  ol  B 
Divine  message  and  gre;  I  ikss. 

Again,    there    is   a    mid   level    of    religion    In    which 

miracle  seems  Indispensable  in  order  to  give  faith 
the   certainty    from    withoul    which    ii    is   no!    able 

to  obtain  from  within;  thus  one  will  sec  and  feel 
with  Thomas    before   one   believes.      (.real    crises  and 


5S>2  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

upheavals,  however,  have  ever  returned  to  the  inner 
wonder  of  the  spirit  of  man.  The  Reformation  was 
attested  hy  no  external  signs  and  wonders,  and  yet  it 
found  the  energy  to  forge  its  way  against  an  old  and 
great  existing  world  and  its  possessions,  to  renew  life, 
and  to  fortify  religious  certainty.  And  so  it  was  in 
connection  with  Savonarola  in  the  dark  days  prior  to 
his  violent  end — days  which  chronicle  a  touching 
insight  into  certainty  and  joyousness.  Where  did  he 
finally  find  these  ?  He  found  them  not  in  external 
signs  and  wonders  which  lay  near  to  him  in  the 
environment  or  through  tradition  ;  he  found  them  in 
the  inward  presence  of  a  life-elevating  Divine  Spirit 
that  makes  something  better  out  of  man,  and  whose 
communication  can  thus  be  no  mere  illusion. 

Doubt  is  far  more  an  uncomfortable  companion  than 
an  enemy  of  religion.  Doubt  always  bears  witness 
to  a  strong  interest,  anxiety,  and  labour  in  the  cause ; 
it  acknowledges  the  problem,  it  discovers  the  difficulty 
and  even  the  impossibility  of  an  easy  solution.  It  is 
quite  otherwise  with  the  entire  denial  of  religion — 
with  the  attempt  to  drive  religion  entirely  out  of  life. 
But  even  this  can  appear  monstrous  to  no  one  to  whom 
the  entanglements  of  the  question  have  become  evi- 
dent and  who  fully  measures  the  wide  distance  between 
our  world  and  the  picture  which  religion  demands. 
But  the  question  arises,  whether  these  entanglements 
can  be  overcome,  and  whether  new  realities — original 
facts — stand  over  against  them.  We  sought  to  show 
that  this  is  the  case  through  the  discovery  of  an 
autonomous  depth  of  life — through  the  tracing  of 
an  intimate  relationship  of  man  to  a  cosmic  and 
absolute   life ;    we  ventured  to  assert  the  need  of  a 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION   AND   Lll-'E      523 

struggle  with  all  things  which,  after  the  inauguration 
of  the  new  life,  become  externals  and  a  mere  environ- 
ment, and  also  to  assert  the  need  of  carrying  forth  such 
a  struggle  to  a  victorious  issue.  Herewith  we  arc  fully 
conscious  of  the  fact  that  the  new  lite  carries  within 
itself  assertions  which  are  in  no  way  self-evident,  and 
concerning  which  much  uncertainty  and  discord  can 
arise.  But  then  the  struggle  is  pushed  back  farther 
into  life ;  it  does  not  concern  an  interpretation  of  a 
"given"  world  but  the  production  and  content  of 
reality  itself;  it  is  not  a  concern  of  the  mere  intellect 
but  of  the  whole  man  ;  it  is  a  struggle  of  life  against 
life.  Let  us  inquire  what  possibilities  are  here  in 
question,  and  what  aspects  of  life  oppose  religion. 

There  are  three  assertions,  or  rather,  the  conjoint 
action  of  three,  which  the  characteristic  life  of 
religion  carries  within  itself.  The  first  is.  thai  ;i  self- 
reliant  and  inter-connected  Spiritual  Life  develops 
over  against  bare  nature  as  well  as  over  against  tin' 
particular  individual  with  all  his  distractions.  The 
second  is,  that  this  Spiritual  Life  collides  in  our 
world  with  the  hardest  oppositions  within  and  with- 
out     oppositions  not    only   in   individual    points    hut 

in  the  whole  of  our  being,  s<>  that  our  existence 
presents  itself  as  an  inner  contradiction.  The  third  is. 
that  the  manifestation  <»f  a  new  life  raises  man  above 
these  oppositions  and  re-instates  life  in  the  position 
of  positive  action  and  creativeness.  Thus,  there  bind 
themselves  together  the  basis,  the  struggle,  and  the 
conquest  of  spirituality.     Lite  is  through  tins  posited 

upon  a  new  summit  J  it  Undergoes  here  son-  trials 
under  which    it.   threatens    to   fade   away,   bu1     finally 

reaches,   through  a  strengthening   from    within,  the 


524  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

victory  of  a  Yea.  When  these  three  grades  bind  them- 
selves through  an  adjustment  of  their  conflicting  ex- 
periences, and  through  a  reciprocal  relationship  into  a 
corporate  life,  then  religion  has  secured  a  pre-eminent 
place  in  life. 

At  the  same  time  there  becomes  evident  whence 
the  rejection  of  religion  arises — from  what  directions 
of  life  it  is  considered  an  error  and  an  absurdity.  Re- 
jected must  religion  be  by  all  who  make  war  upon  its 
foundation  and  indispensable  presupposition — upon  the 
existence  of  an  independent  spirituality.  Naturalism 
does  this  through  its  conceiving  of  all  Spiritual  Life 
as  a  mere  product  or  a  secondary  accompanying 
phenomenon  of  the  sensuous  world.  Phenomenalism 
or  subjectivism  acts  similarly  through  the  dissemina- 
tion and  dissolution  of  the  Spiritual  Life  into  isolated 
and  disconnected  phenomena.  Both  do  not  bring 
forth  either  the  need  for,  or  the  understanding  of, 
religion.  And  even  quite  as  little  will  a  mode  of 
thinking  help  life  which  does  not  perceive  the 
difficulties  and  the  manifold  contradictions  down  to 
their  very  root,  and  which  resolves  all  the  discords  of 
the  first  view  of  things  into  an  encompassing  world- 
harmony  :  these  are  the  optimists  of  all  kinds. 
Optimism  is  able  to  assume  many  different  forms  ;  it 
is  able  to  perceive  reason  in  the  very  structure  of 
the  universe  or  in  the  evolution  of  life ;  it  is  able  to 
determine  the  progress  of  human  civilisation  from  a 
practico-social  point  of  view ;  it  is  able,  on  the 
romantic-speculative  side,  to  take  the  greatness  and 
beauty  of  nature  as  its  basis.  The  enthusiasm  of 
culture  and  the  romanticism  of  nature  find  the 
solution   of  things  within  the  given  world,  and   do 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION  AND  LIFE      525 

not  feel  the  need  of  religion,  and  they  often  con- 
ceive of  the  turn  to  religion  as  an  expression  of 
weakness.  But,  however,  the  full  acknowledgment 
of  the  hindrance  leads  in  no  way  to  religion.  It 
can  include  far  more  a  paralysing  and  a  deadlock 
of  life  which  turn  either  into  a  weak  resignation  or 
into  a  passionate  pessimism.  As  soon,  however,  as 
pessimism  becomes  rigid  and  absolute  it  withstands 
religion,  since  it  holds  life  fast  to  doubt — life  which 
otherwise  through  the  possession  of  a  new  stage 
would  have  turned  to  religion. 

From  these  assaults,  the  greater  outer  diffusion 
happens  in  the  beginning  of  the  series,  and  the  greater 
inner  dangers  happen  in  the  conclusion.  Naturalism 
corresponds  to  the  character  of  the  great  external 
accumulations  found  in  all  situations,  and  has  but  a 
slight  contact  with  spiritual  tasks.  Pessimism  fetters 
more  the  elevated  things  which  carry  within  them- 
selves the  movements  and  experiences  of  life.  Special 
modes  of  thought  and  conceptions  of  the  universe 
originate  from  these  standpoints  modes  of  thought 
with  which  religion  has  to  come  to  an  understanding. 
Hut  what  arises  into  ideas  and  doctrines  draws  its 
energy  from  the  formation  of  life  out  of  which  it 
proceeds  and  which  brings  it  to  expression.  Religion, 
however,  asserts  its  right  and  superiority  in  thai  it 
alone  is  able  to  estimate  tlw  different  sides  of  things 
justly  and  to  connect  them  together  into  a  Whole; 
and  in  thai  it  is  able  to  give  its  rights  to  each  indi 
\idii,il  main  experience  without  doing  ;i  wrong  to  any 
experience.  Religion  alone  institutes  :i  thorough* 
going  ino\  enient  and  maintains  this  movemenl  even 
,ii     the    end;    it    alone    is    able   simultaneously    to 


526  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

recognise  fully  the  hindrances  and  inwardly  to  over- 
come them. 

If  thus  the  source  of  the  power  of  religion  lies  in 
such  a  universal  and  elevated  character  of  its  life,  the 
defence  of  its  truth  depends  especially  in  holding  life 
fully  to  its  summits,  in  developing  the  particular  sides 
equably,  and  in  gathering  them  together  strongly 
into  a  Whole,  thus  avoiding  a  resignation  into  lower 
levels  and  courageously  steering  clear  of  dangerous 
courses. 

It  is  necessary  before  all  else  for  the  truth  of 
religion  that  the  elevation  to  the  stage  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  should  be  consummated  and  conserved  with  all 
energy.  Such  a  truth  enters  always  into  insecurity 
when  religion  is  based  upon  mere  feeling ;  and,  along 
with  this,  all  spiritual  contents  disappear  when  re- 
ligion rests  in  the  main  upon  isolated  activities  and 
does  not  lead  into  a  new  mode  of  being,  and  de- 
velops no  new  reality  out  of  itself.  If  there  results 
no  elevation  beyond  the  ordinary  surface-tendency  of 
life,  if  religion  works  only  within  a  "given"  world 
instead  of  manifesting  a  new  world,  it  abandons  its 
truth  from  the  very  beginning  and  becomes  power- 
less against  doubt.  The  second  point  is  the  need 
of  the  full  acknowledgment  of  the  opposition, 
and  the  rejection  of  all  superficial  optimism.  Cer- 
tainly it  is  necessary  to  conquer  finally  the  enemy 
somehow,  but  the  conquest  itself  loses  its  energy 
when  the  problem  is  blunted  from  the  very  beginning. 
The  opposition,  however,  will  be  estimated  in  a 
fuller  measure  only  when  the  fact  is  laid  hold  of  as  a 
Whole  and  is  made  to  depend  upon  one's  own  act,  i.e. 
when  the  encounter  takes  on  an  ethical  character.     It 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION  AND  LIFE      527 

is  thus  alone  that  the  problem  steps  into  the  centre 
of  life,  and  thus  alone  does  the  matter  shape  itself 
into  a  struggle  for  a  spiritual  existence.  This  does 
not  mean,  in  spite  of  great  failures  and  the  breaking 
off  at  the  outset  of  many  convictions,  that  all  evil  is 
an  effect  of  guilt.  That  would  present  a  far  too 
narrow  and  rigid  formation  of  life — a  formation 
largely  devoid  of  the  ethical.  Yet  the  whole  of  life 
must  interpret  every  tendency ;  for  it  is  only  when 
man  himself  participates  in  the  great  world-struggle, 
experiences  and  grasps  the  tasks  as  his  own,  that  the 
opposition  gains  such  a  violent  and  stirring  energy 
as  to  render  a  reconciliation  witli  the  given  situation 
now  simply  impossible,  and  to  have  the  choice  only 
between  an  overthrow  or  a  renewal  of  life. 

The  third  and  final  point  we  wish  to  emphasise  is, 
that  this  renewal  is  actually  realised,  and  is  not  a 
mere  delusion  ;  it  means  that  life  is  essentially  raised 
from  within — indeed,  raised  in  its  totality  and  that  it 
depends  in  no  manner  on  purely  particular  excitations 
of  lucre  injunctions  from  a  •'beyond."  for  such  would 
keep  life  tied  to  a  mere  hope  and  tarrying,  and  would 
easily  give  it  an  oppressed  and  doleful  character. 
The  aspiring  New  must  reach  a  Living  present,  and 
dare  not,  reconcile  itself  to  a  mere  .More  of  I  lie  prior 
situation;  it  must  not  trace  out  in  imagination  ;i 
similar  (bu1  painless)  world  looms,  but  ii  must  bring 
forth  an  entire  transformation  and  along  with  this 
consummate  an  essential  elevation;  otherwise  there 
is  no  genuine  conquest  and  no  con\  incing  meaning  of 
the  whole.     For  why  all  I  his  toil  and  sorrow  if  not  hing 

1IC1L'  issues  fort  Ii  '. 

First  of  all,  it  is  necessary  to  raise  life  i<»  h  Ik  ighl 


528  CHARACTERISTIC    RELIGION 

of  an  essential  self-subsisting  spirituality,  and 
to  gain  a  new  domain — a  new  place  for  spiritual 
experience ;  it  is  here  necessary  to  experience  the 
Nay  and  the  Yea  and  to  bring  them  to  a  right 
relationship,  and  finally  raise  all  to  an  undivided 
and  encompassing  life.  The  main  proof  of  religion 
lies  always  in  the  Whole  of  the  life  developed  out 
of  religion.  This  Whole  must  draw  to  itself  the 
whole  circumference  of  existence ;  it  must  sift  and 
winnow,  connect  and  raise ;  it  must  conduct  things 
to  their  own  truth ;  it  must  kindle  a  powerful 
movement  which,  through  its  own  content  and  its 
progressive  victorious  superiority,  demonstrates  its 
own  truth.  Here  it  is  not  a  doctrine  which  man 
has  merely  to  accept  and  follow  that  leads  him  to 
religion,  but  a  life  held  in  front  of  him  and  brought 
near  to  him ;  it  is  for  this  he  is  called,  for  it  is  this 
alone  which  grants  him  the  right  relationship  to 
reality,  and  enables  him  to  dive  into  the  depth  of 
his  own  nature.  Through  this  the  idea  of  reality 
is  transformed,  extended,  and  deepened.  The  ele- 
vation of  the  level  of  reality,  the  inner  ascent  of  life 
in  a  manner  superior  to  all  capacity  of  the  mere 
individual,  the  growth  and  creativeness — all  these 
are  the  main  proof  which  religion  is  able  to  bring 
forth.  The  fact  that  religion,  with  its  willing  and 
creating,  stands  in  no  isolation  but  finds  itself  in  the 
centre  of  life,  that  it  furthers  the  whole  and  not 
merely  isolated  sides,  and  that  it  leads  it  to 
its  own  truth — all  this  belongs  essentially  to  this 
main  proof.  As  with  all  things  original  and  axiomatic, 
this  new  life  is  positively  demonstrated  through  its 
own  development  and  not  through  a  deduction  from 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION  AM)  LIFE     529 

some  other  points  :  it  carries  its  most  effective  energy 
of  conviction  in  the  strength  and  clearness  of  its  own 
development ;  it  never  allows  itself  to  be  forced  from 
without,  but  only  to  be  stimulated  from  within, 
and  it  cannot  possibly  convince  and  gain  us  where 
such  a  stimulation  finds  no  kind  of  accommodating 
spirit. 

An  indirect  proof,  however,  can  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  without  the  connection  and  elevation  of  life  re- 
presented by  religion,  all  that  life  possesses  as  any  kind 
of  content  becomes  insecure  and  unstable.  We  need 
only  follow  backwards  the  stages  of  ascent  in  order 
to  become  aware  that  with  the  surrender  of  religion 
a  decay  of  life  sets  in,  eats  more  and  more  into  its 
essentials,  and  finally  destroys  its  deepest  foundation. 
When  religion  thus  decays,  a  conquest  of  unreason 
takes  its  place,  and  pessimism  becomes  the  uncon- 
tested lord  of  the  field.  As  a  final  conclusion,  how- 
ever, such  a  pessimism  must  become  rigid,  embittered, 
and  barren;  the  whole  life  sees  itself  threatened  by 
it  with  stagnation  indeed,  with  destruction.  An 
urgent  natural  impulse  withstands  this  pessimism, 
and  a  tenacious  clinging  to  existence  softens  it  to  some 
extent.  One  wishes  in  some  kind  of  way  to  retain 
life,  hut  is  not  able  to  do  this  without  emphasis- 
ing the  brighter  sides  of  existence  and  placing  the 
darker  sides  in  the  background;  thus  we  find  an 
approach  to  optimism  without  :i  crossing  over  to 
optimism.  Thus  we  witness  in  our  own  day  an 
affirmation  of  lite  gaining  ground  over  against  an 
intolerable  growing  pessimism ;  the  ground  is  Lenn<<l 
not  so  much  through  an  inner  elevation  ol  life 
;is    through    men's    resistance   to   an    entire    denial 

:  1 1 


530  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

15 ut  a  solid  support  is  granted  in  no  way  through 
such  a  resistance.  Such  a  resistance  either  con- 
tains but  little  basal  affirmation  of  life  in  face  of 
the  conflicting  impressions  of  experience,  and  conse- 
quently sinks  into  superficiality  and  unveracity,  or 
these  contradictory  impressions  gain  the  overhand  and 
destroy  then  all  synthesis  of  life  and  annihilate  all 
self-reliant  spirituality.  Thus,  life  loses  all  spiritual 
character,  and  renounces  all  ideality  when  it  turns 
aside  the  inner  advance  of  the  movement  and  its 
conclusion  from  the  realm  of  religion.  It  appears 
clear  in  connection  with  all  this,  that  the  matter  does 
not  deal  with  a  special  province,  but  with  the  pre- 
servation of  the  whole  of  life,  and  that  the  denial  of 
religion  leads  inevitably  to  an  inner  dissolution  of  the 
whole  of  life. 

One  may  seek  to  evade  such  a  conclusion  of  life 
as  this  through  the  belief  that  a  certain  kind  of  Spir- 
itual Life  is  possible  and  actual  without  penetrating 
to  final  questions — that  it  surrounds  us  with  its  multi- 
coloured fulness  through  the  expansion  of  the  work  of 
culture.  Why  should  we  not  accept  the  Spiritual  Life 
as  it  offers  itself  to  us  in  culture,  dismiss  all  further 
questions,  and  cling  to  the  actual  whilst  refusing 
to  be  involved  in  any  problems  of  a  subtle  inward 
nature  ?  We  are  able  to  do  this,  and  had  it  not 
been  that  we  were  able  to  do  it,  life  would  offer  quite 
a  different  aspect,  and  its  opposites  would  stand  far 
more  pointedly  and  clearly  against  each  other.  But 
such  an  explanation  of  the  whole  matter  is  obtained 
at  a  high  price  !  It  is  possible  only  where  the  Spiritual 
Life  is  conceived  as  something  "  given  "  and  presented 
from  the  outside  and  not  as  something  inward  and 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION  AND  LIFE     531 

originally  engendered.  Thus  it  appears  more  as  ail 
alien  than  as  our  own  concern— more  as  an  appended 
trimming  than  as  our  inmost  nature — and  also  it 
resolves  itself  into  so  many  isolated  appearances  and 
does  not  connect  itself  together  into  a  Whole.  Who- 
soever  tolerates  such  a  degradation,  alienation,  and  dis- 
integration, and  through  this  can  renounce  all  inward 
independence,  and  place  aside  the  question  of  truth  even 
at  the  source  of  life  itself,  may  find  such  a  compromise 
sufficient  for  him.  Hut  he  who  takes  up  the  struggle 
for  truth  and  is  determined  to  live  his  life  as  his  \n\ 
own,  must  lay  on  one  side  such  compromise,  lor  he  is 
not  ahle  to  escape  from  the  fact  that  the  problem  pro 
ceeds  from  a  Whole  to  a  Whole,  and  that  the  nature 
of  the  movement  is  decided  in  the  final  conclusion  of 
religion  ;  and  further  that  what  has  been  given  upin  the 
Whole  and  in  the  Substance  cannot  lie  retained  in  any 
one  isolated  point  or  in  the  subject,  and  thai  no  indi- 
vidual stage  can  oiler  us  a  foothold  if  the  Whole  ends 

in  unreason.     If  one  believes  therefore  thai  a  denial  of 

religion  is  a  legit  imate  procedure, one  must  at  the  same 

time  throw  away  as   snnhlance  and  delusion  what   life 

has  developed  in  the  form  of  ideal  greatness  and  good 
ness.  and  such  a  procedure  l<;ids  inei  itably  to  the  con 

ception    of  the   spiritual    evolution  of  liuiii.iinl  \   as  an 

unparalleled  great  aberration.  When  this  happens, 
man  becomes  from  out  of  a  cosmic  nature  a  mere 
piece  of  a  soulless  and  meaningless  mechanism  <■! 
culture,  and  all  greatness  and  .ill  emancipation  from 
the  mere-human  to  an  inner  independence  disappear 
with  the  loss  of  the  struggle  From  a  Whole  to  b  \\  hole 
And  with  the  resignation  of  all  inner  connections  oi 
reality,  all  unity  of  personality  is  given  up.     No*  thai 


532  CHARACTERISTIC   RELIGION 

there  is  no  intimate  relationship  to  the  whole  of  reality, 
all  originality,  all  freedom,  and  all  genuine  present 
moment  of  the  soul  fall  away  ;  and  now  where  a  mere 
point  holds  life  fast  and  rigid  to  itself,  all  love  whieh 
has  risen  above  a  mere,  natural  impulse  becomes  an 
empty  phrase. 

The  so-called  immanent  idealism  with  its  deceptive, 
intermediate  formations  has  become  a  special  danger  to 
man  and  to  religion.  Such  a  system  dazzles  man  be- 
cause it  contends  that  the  reason  of  reality  and  the 
meaning  of  life  descend  upon  him  without  much  labour, 
in  a  form  of  immediacy.  Such  an  intermediate  product 
springs  from  a  flaw  in  the  energy  of  life,  and  is  bound  to 
increase  such  a  flaw ;  but  notwithstanding  its  clang- 
ing phrases  it  is  never  able  to  discover  this  flaw,  and 
it  injures  the  truth  of  life.  It  is  not  only  in  the 
realm  of  science  but  also  in  religion  that  the  words  of 
Bacon  hold  valid,  that  truth  proceeds  out  of  mistakes 
rather  than  out  of  chaos.  The  atheist  is  not  the 
most  dangerous  enemy  of  religion. 

The  Spiritual  Life  which  attains  full  clearness  in 
religion  constantly  remains  in  difficult  opposition  to 
the  environing  world,  and  an  overcoming  of  this 
opposition  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  ordinary  capacity 
of  man.  This  opposition  must  and  will  move  and 
stir  ever  anew  head  and  heart,  and  will  ever  drive 
forth  new  doubts.  The  decision  lies  finally  in  the 
question  whether  for  man  the  external  world  or  a 
spring  of  life  within  himself  is  the  main  fact,  whether 
the  centre  of  gravity  of  reality  is  found  without  or 
within.  TV  is  a  struggle  for  the  governing  centre  of 
life.  If  the  inner  life  attains  to  no  independence  and 
is  not  led  as  a  YVrhole,  the  contradictions  of  the  envir- 


GENERAL  ASPECT  OF  RELIGION   AND  LIFE 

oning  world  appear  insurmountable,  and   man  must 
decline    religion   as    an    impossibility.     Hut    if    t la- 
inner  life  reaches  such  an  independence,  and  if  man 
finds  within  the  Spiritual  Life  simultaneously  a  m  w 
world  and   his   own   genuine   self,  the  gravest    mis- 
givings will  not  be  able  to  overthrow   the  certainty 
of  this   fundamental   fact     Thus,  this    fundamental 
fact  remains    as  the  first  and    foremost,  and    uplifts 
itself  far  from  the  contradictions  of  the  whole  external 
world,  so  that  the  aspect  of  world  has  to  accommodate 
itself  to  this  fact   and   not  this   fact    to  that  aspect. 
Certainly,  even  after  such  a  decision  the  contradic- 
tion does  not  simply  vanish,  but  as  holiness  retains  the 
background  of  suffering,  so  certainty  will  preserve  its 
"one   thing  needful"  as  the  background    of  doubt. 
But   the    contradiction    is    now    removed    from    the 
centre  to  the  periphery  of  life  ;  it  can  therefore  only 
touch  us  from   without,  and  is  not  able  to  overthrow 
what    is    within;  it   will    now   not    so    much   weaken 
as  strengthen  the  certainty,  because   it   calls  lite  to  a 
perpetual  renewal  and  brings  to  fruition  the  greatness 
of  the  conquest. 


Part   V.— Christianity   and   the   Present 

INTRODUCTORY   REMARKS   CONCERNING    HIS- 
TORICAL AND  ABSOLUTE  RELIGION 

If  we  now  open  the  question  eoncerning  the  relation 
of  Christianity  to  our  present  day,  the  question  gives 
another  kind  of  character  to  our  investigation,  and 
presents  new  difficulties.  Hitherto  we  have  striven 
to  come  to  an  understanding  with  all  who  ac- 
knowledge fully  the  significance  of  the  religious 
problem,  but  now  we  enter  into  a  domain  where 
divergent  opinions  are  hardly  to  be  avoided.  For 
scientific  reflections  alone  are  not  able  to  decide  con- 
cerning the  material  within  this  domain,  because  char- 
acteristics of  the  work  of  life,  individual  impressions 
and  experiences,  fall  into  the  balance.  Thus,  much 
which  appeared  to  us  as  a  main  tendency  is  separated 
from  us  through  this  further  problem.  But  in  spite  of 
this  we  dare  not  place  our  further  investigation  on 
one  side.  Closely  connected  with  the  investigation 
concerning  the  intrinsic  truth  of  religion  lies  an  open 
pronouncement  concerning  the  situation  of  our  day, 
for  it  is  such  a  pronouncement  which  is  able  to  set 
forth  the  essential  character  of  our  general  conviction. 
That  which  rejects  being  immersed  in  mere  Time  has 
yet  to  verify  itself  in  Time.     May  we  as  friends,  in 

534 


HISTORICAL   AND   ABSOLUTE    RELIGION 

the   midst  of  all  the  differences,  hold  Past    to   what 
binds  us  together  in  the  totality  of  our  convictions. 

How  we  understand  the  relation  of  the  historical 
religions,  and  amongst  them  of  Christianity,  to 
absolute  religion,  has  been  shown  in  the  whole  course 
of  our  investigation.  As  certainly  as  there  is  only  one 
sole  truth,  there  can  only  be  one  absolute  religion. 
and  this  religion  coincides  entirely  in  no  way  with 
any  one  of  the  historical  religions.  For  they  all 
conceive  of  the  Divine  under  the  conditions  of  the 
human  situation;  originating  and  growing  in  parti 
cular  epochs,  they  have  all  to  pay  their  tribute  to 
the  characteristics  and  culture  of  such  epochs.  Hut 
what  is  problematic  and  transient  in  such  particularity 
need  not  prevent  the  action  of  a  truth  superior  to 
time.  If  we  acknowledge  as  the  one  essential  of 
religions  that  they  manifest  and  represent  a  Divine 
Life,  such  a  Life  in  its  inmost  foundation  is  superior 
to  its  external  configuration  and  activity,  and  thus 
it  is  able  to  withstand  all  the  changes  of  lime,  and 
to  maintain  in  the  midst  of  all  it  s  curt  ailment  through 
the    human    situation    ;m   eternal    truth.        It    is   then 

necessary  to  differentiate  such  a  Substance  of  religion 
from  its  Eocistential-form't  it   is  necessax)  t«>  examine 

how     far     religion    harbours    and    represents    such    a 
fundamental    life    which     rims    through    all    ages    and 

nations,  and  which  raises  them  beyond    the  merely 

human   situation.      Thai    a  religion   confesses   Itself  to 
hi-  an  historical  religion  does  not   mean  that   it   is  to  he 

considered  as  the  final  and  completed  truth,  hut  thai 
it  is  accepted  as  a  standpoint   where  there  exists  the 

closest   possible  contact    with    truth,  and   u  h<  i  <    w  <    .ire 

able  to  take  possession  of  it. 


536  CHRISTIANITY    AND  THE   PRESENT 

The  historical  religions  are  not  the  truth  itself,  but 
appearances  of  the  truth  and  pathways  to  the  truth  ; 
and  it  is  only  where  the  Divine  and  the  human  get 
mixed  up  that  men  can  fail  to  perceive  this  limit  of 
the  historical  religions. 

If  from  the  standpoint  of  religion  a  critical  investi- 
gation of  historical  religions  becomes  needful,  critical 
investigation  is  nowhere  more  difficult  than  within  this 
domain.     Conflicting  considerations  work  here  especi- 
ally against  each  other.     Now  the  historical  religions 
may  partially  desire  and  deserve  a  great  veneration 
because  of  their  actual  achievements.    They  are  not 
mere  systems   of  doctrine,  but  a  concentration   and 
development  of  life ;  they  have  traced  out  ideals  not 
through  some  bold  flight  of  thought,  but  have  rooted 
such  ideals  even  in  the  stony  ground  of  the  life  of 
humanity  ;  they  have  worked  not  merely  for  a  period 
and  upon  select  minds,  but  have  operated  along  the 
whole  vista  of  the  ages  for  the  welfare  of  humanity  ; 
they  carry  within  themselves,  through  their  close  con- 
tact with  human  reality,  great  experiences,  and  have 
gained  an  actuality  which  maintains  itself  through  its 
own  centre  of  gravity,  because  religion  from  the  outset 
deals  not  so  much  with  theoretical  considerations  of 
the  world,  but  with  a  content  of  life  which  will  secure 
for  us  a  spiritual  existence.     Thus  Hegel's  words  con- 
cerning a  preponderatingly  critical  relationship  to  the 
State  hold  even  more  valid  in  the  domain  of  religion. 
"  The  State  is  no  work  of  art ;  it  stands  within  the 
world,  and  thus  within  the  spheres  of  arbitrary  action, 
of  accidents,  and  of  errors ;  and  evil  conduct  is  able 
to  disfigure  it  on  many  sides.     But  even  the  ugliest 
person,  the  criminal,  the  invalid,  and  the  cripple,  are 


HISTORICAL   AND   ABSOLUTE    RELIGION      537 

yet  living  beings:  and  this  affirmation  Life  exists 
in  spite  of  all  the  Haws,  and  it  is  with  this  affirma- 
tion that  we  have  to  do."  Where  the  treatment  of 
religion  does  not  succeed  in  reaching  this  affirmative 
character,  where  religion  is  simply  cavilled  at,  and 
no  attempt  is  made  to  enter  into  its  totality  and 
its  inwardness,  such  a  carping  criticism  may  attain  a 
cheap  popularity,  but  it  has  absolutely  no  value  for 
the  subject-matter. 

This  is  one  side  of  the  matter.  Hut  there  remains 
another  side,  and  it,  too,  has  its  rights.  The  historical 
religions  may  not  be  satisfied  with  their  actual  facts 
alone;  they  raise  the  claim  of  being  the  truth  the  final 
truth,  which  is  superior  to  all  else.  Now.  nothing 
not  even  the  most  colossal  achievement  of  an  historical 
kind — is  able  to  furnish  the  proof  of  such  a  truth,  lor 
such  a  proof  is  only  to  be  found  from  a  standpoint 
above  Time  and  from  the  very  nature  of  the  Spirit- 
ual Life  and  its  fundamental  relationship  to  reality. 

Thus    an    intimate   and    immediate   life   has   to   stand 

over  against  every  historical   achievement,  measure 

it,  and  test  it.  In  fact  there  exists  in  all  times, 
and  especially  in   such    times  when    historical    religion 

was  in  a  state  of  indisputable  sovereignty,  an  interior 
tension  between  tradition  and  immediate  life,  and  the 
assimilation  of  the  presented    materia]  is  ever  a  re 

modelling   and    an    adjustment       Hut    as    long   ;is   this 

adjustment  was  not  too  difficull  to  accomplish,  no 
cleft  was  felt,  and  consequently  the  historical  religion 
could  appear  to  be  in  entire  possession  of  the  truth. 
When,  however,  importanl  transformations  of  uni 
versa!  life  heighten  the  tension,  a  poinl  isfinallj  reached 
where  men  feel  especially  its  distance  from  their  own 


538  CHRISTIANITY    AND   THE    PRESENT 

ideas  and  efforts,  and  where,  consequently,  the  relation- 
ship to  such  an  historical  religion  becomes  pre- 
dominantly critical  and  negative.  The  differences 
which  thus  originate  may  be  twofold.  Either  life 
outgrows  the  content  of  the  historical  religion, 
and  therefore  great  revolutions  of  an  inward  char- 
acter become  inevitable ;  or  all  the  transformations 
in  the  existential-form  leave  so  much  of  the  Sub- 
stance untouched,  so  that  still  the  changes  in  the 
external  form  can  be  connected  with  the  inward 
nucleus,  and  thus  in  the  midst  of  all  the  dis- 
arrangement the  continuity  of  the  historical  religion 
can  be  preserved.  Indeed,  the  transformation  in 
the  existential-form  may  even  help  towards  a  purer 
and  more  energetic  effect  of  the  Substance,  and  thus 
the  seeming  upheaval  and  destruction  may  prove 
itself  finally  to  be  a  development  and  deepening  of 
the  Substance. 

All  this  has  now  to  be  applied  in  connection  with 
Christianity.  It  is  necessary  to  ask  the  question,  how 
deeply  Christianity  is  affected  by  the  undeniable  trans- 
formations of  culture  and  human  life,  whether  it  is 
able  to  assert  and  maintain  itself  victoriously  over 
against  such  culture  and  life,  and  what  such  an 
assertion  demands  in  the  way  of  new  activities. 


PART  V.— CHRISTIANITY   AND  THE  PRESENT 

(Continued) 

CHAPTER    XV 
a.  The  Eternal  in  Christianity 

1.   The  Nucleus  beyond  (ill  Loss. 

The  whole  of  our  investigation  Leaves  no  doubl  as 
to  our  position  in  regard  to  Christianity.  A  double 
aspect  has  been  already  fully  noticed.  On  the  one 
hand.  Christianity  in  the  nature  of  its  Substance 
appears  as  the  highest  embodiment  of  absolute  re- 
ligion ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  a  fundamental  rc\  ision 
of  its  traditional  existential -toil  1 1  has  become  absolutely 
necessary.  It  has  already  appeared  t<>  us  that  we  are 
not  able  to  develop  what  proves  itself  as  absolute 
religion  without  a  constant  reference  to  Christianity. 

Christianity    has     already    appeared     to    us    from    its 

inmost  foundation   as    the    religion    of    religions,   and. 

simultaneously,  as  being  certain  of  a  permanenl  dura 
tion.     Hut  the  Eternal  in  Christianity  finds  itself  not 

only   railed    in   and    interlaced,    but    also   welded    with 

seemingly   inseparable  elements  which  bear  the  im 

print  of  a  special  age,  and  Which  WG   dare  not    hind    to 

ourselves    an  age  which  is  so  distant    from  us  and 

which  in  so   many  ways  has    been  outrun.       It   is    QOW 

necessary  t<>  present  a  connected  view  ol  the  i\\"t<>l<l 


540         CHRISTIANITY    AND  THE    PRESENT 

aspects,  to  mark  clearly  the  boundaries  between  them, 
and  to  show  the  necessity  of  not  allowing  the  religious 
problem  to  remain  in  a  state  of  stagnation.  If  we 
brine  together  the  results  of  our  main  discussion  and 
the  historical  conditions  of  Christianity,  we  shall  see 
how  they  illumine  one  another  reciprocally,  how  they 
strengthen  one  another,  and,  also,  how  they  diverge 
from  one  another.  This  will  enable  us  to  understand 
where  the  boundary  between  the  temporal  and  the 
Eternal  lies,  and  this  in  its  turn  will  carry  to  clearer 
expression  the  manner  in  which  Christianity  has  to  be 
shaped  in  the  future. 

Christianity  is  a  religion  of  redemption  and  not  a 
religion  of  law.  Herein  lies  the  acknowledgment  of 
a  pointed  contrast  between  an  actual  and  an  urgent 
situation  ;  herein  lies  the  assertion  of  the  inability, 
out  of  one's  own  energy,  to  reach  the  longed-for 
summit  through  a  general  kind  of  improvement  of 
the  prior  situation ;  and  herein  lies  the  demand  of  a 
transformation  and  elevation  through  an  intimate 
entrance  of  the  Divine.  Does  the  general  experience 
of  the  Spiritual  Life  corroborate  this  assertion  ?  It 
does.  For  we  have  already  seen  how  the  Spiritual 
Life  is  unable  to  find  its  necessary  self-reliance  in  the 
world  of  ordinary  experience  ;  we  have  seen  a  breach 
between  genuine  spirituality  and  the  world  taking 
place ;  and  we  have  seen  how  the  effects  of  all  this 
carry  a  new  world  within  themselves.  In  spiritual 
things  every  pathway  of  man  leads  to  a  Yea  through 
a  Nay,  and  all  toil  is  in  vain  without  an  inner  eleva- 
tion through  the  energy  of  an  Absolute  Life.  This 
happens  in  connection  with  the  whole  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  as  soon  as  it  aspires  to  climb  from  merely  decora- 


THE   ETERNAL   IN   CHRISTIANITY  ..11 

tive  culture  to  genuine  truth,  and  this  Spiritual  Lite- 
strengthens  itself  even  through  the  very  effort  itself; 
it  is  only  the  inauguration  of  a  new  stage  of  reality 
that  is  able  here  to  prevent  a  shipwreck  of  all  toilsome 
work.  This  new  stage  places  the  threatened  over- 
throw of  human  life,  the  impotence  of  mere  man.  and 
the  presence  of  an  elevated  world,  far  more  intuitively 
and  urgently  before  man's  eyes.  Thus,  the  religion 
of  redemption  only  brings  to  a  fuller  expression  and 
more  tangible  configuration  what  is  presenl  as  :i 
demand  and  a  fact  throughout  the  whole  of  life. 

The  religions  of  redemption  which  are  found  along- 
side of  Christianity  are  esoteric  Brahmanism  and 
Buddhism.  But  the  difference  between  the  Latter 
and  Christianity  occupied  our  attention  at  the  com- 
mencement of  our  investigation,  and  has  appeared 
all  the  greater  in  the  course  of  the  investigation. 
Now  it  becomes  quite  clear  how  wide  an  interval  lies 
between  a  predominantly  intellectual  religion  of  re- 
demption and  a  predominantly  ethical  one,  and  how 
differently  life  shapes  itself  in  each.  In  the  former 
mode  an  emancipation  from  semblance  becomes 
accessary;  in  the  Latter  mode  an  overcoming  of  evil 
is  tin-  one  thing  needful.  In  the  former,  tlie  \«  i\ 
basis  of  the  world  seems  evil ;  in  the  Latter,  it  is  the 
perversion  of  tliis  h.isis  which  seems  eviL  In  the 
former,  the  impulses  of  life  are  t<»  be  entirely  eradi 
cated;  in  the  fitter,  on  the  contrary,  they  are  to  be 
ennobled  or  rather  to  be  transformed.  In  the  former, 
no  higher  world  of  a  positive  kind  dawns  on  man, 
so  thai  Life  finally  reaches  a  seemingl)  valid  point  ■•! 
rest,  whilst  upon  Christian  ground  Life  ever  anew 
ascends  beyond  itself. 


542  CHRISTIANITY    AND  THE   PRESENT 

In  Christianity  suffering  lias  its  bitterness  chiefly 
as  a  perversion  of  an  original  good,  so  that  a  Yea 
is  able  to  work  in  the  midst  of  all  unreason,  and 
a  hope  of  a  final  conquest  is  able  to  become  the 
possession  of  the  soul  in  the  midst  of  the  seeming 
collapse  of  the  world.  But  an  elevation  into  a  new 
world  is  even  here  not  an  entire  casting  off*  of  the  old 
world.  For  that  elevation  does  not  succeed  at  the 
outset  in  reaching  the  inmost  depth — the  centre  of 
life.  The  old  world  with  its  darkness  and  suffering, 
its  alarm  and  its  error,  persists  in  the  whole  breadth 
of  existence.  There  arises  thus  a  noteworthy  dialectic 
of  life.  What  man  possesses  in  this  existence  has 
to  be  won  and  even  abandoned.  Thus,  an  overflow- 
ing joy  and  a  deep  pain,  a  serene  security  of  the 
inner  being  and  a  drifting  of  existence  before  all 
the  storms  of  life ;  a  steadfast  conviction  and  a 
brooding  doubt,  a  participation  in  the  perfection  of 
Absolute  Life  and  a  persistence  of  human  pettiness 
meet  as  opposites  in  the  one  and  same  life.  If  life 
is  ever  to  rise,  it  has  to  take  upon  itself,  in  a  genuine 
manner,  its  own  acts,  and  not  be  satisfied  with  a 
merely  sentimental  disposition ;  it  has  to  enter  into 
an  incessant  tension  and  movement ;  it  has  to  be 
driven  to  ever  further  self-deepening  ;  and  it  has  to 
take  up  its  experiences  in  all  their  extent,  to  live 
through  them,  and  to  taste  all  their  sweets  and  bitter- 
ness. Thus  there  arises  energy  without  defiance, 
gentleness  without  weakness ;  indeed,  the  deepest 
feeling  and  the  most  joyous  activity  sustain  and  inter- 
lace one  another.  Such  an  inner  tension  and  move- 
ment, as  we  have  already  observed,  are  indispensable 
for  the  ascent  of  the  Spiritual  Life  under  human  con- 


THE   ETERNAL   IN   CHRISTIANITY 

ditions,  and  Christianity  only  develops  here  in  a  special 
direction  what  is  struggling  upwards  from  the  whole 
of  life  and  which  is  pressing  towards  a  configuration. 

All  religions  proclaim  and  require  morality.     Hut 
this  of  itself  signifies  in  no  manner  that   freedom  and 
deed  constitute  the  source  of  their    ideal   world,  or 
that  the  nucleus  of  the  Spiritual  Lite  is  of  an  ethical 
nature.     What  constitutes  the  decisive  characteristic 
of  Christianity   is   the   fact  that  it  roots  tli<'  whole 
world  in  freedom,  and  that   it   refuses  altogether  the 
reducing    of    the    Spiritual    Life    to    a    natural    or 
mental  process.     Hut,  at  the  same  time.  Christianity 
steps  into  painful  entanglements  without  and  within. 
Without,  a  rigid  kingdom  of  mechanism  which  enters 
into  the  soul  and  overpowers  spiritual  activity  with- 
stands the  attempts  of  a  transformation  into  freedom, 
into  a  soul,  and  into  love.      The  impression  of  a  blind 
indifferent  actuality  is  here  so  powerful   againsl   .ill 
inner  greatness  and  goodness  that  an  external  glance 
of  things  deems  it  hopeless  to  overcome  the  opposition. 
At  the  same  time,  entanglements  of  an  inward  kind 
threaten  to  bring  the  movemenl  towards  freedom  and 
personality  under  the  ban  of  the  petty-human,  and 
to  rob  these  qualities  of  their  cosmic  character;  and 
the  threat,  goes  so  far  as  to  coerce  all  inward  aspira 
tion  under  an  all  powerful  destiny.     Therefore,  there 
arises  a  painful  hazardous  enterprise  when  the  st ruj 
is  taken  up  againsl  such  oppositions  within  and  with 
out;  hut  Christianity  has  found  the  courage  and  the 
faith    r..r   this   colossal   struggle,  for   it    has  become 
convinced  thai  this  is  the  only  means  for  the  spiritual 
preservation  of  human  life  and  for  the  gaining  of  i 
meaning  and  value.     At   the  same  time,  the  inmost 


5U  CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE   PRESENT 

nucleus  of  life  must  withdraw  itself  from  all  rational- 
istic deductions,  and  yet  it  has  to  remain  in  the  midst 
of  opposites.  Christianity  is  the  most  ultra-rational 
of  all  religions,  because  it  is  the  richest  and  deepest 
of  them  all. 

It  was  a  main  point  in  our  investigation  to  show 
that  the  Spiritual  Life  is  not  a  manifestation  of  mere 
man  but  of  an  independent  reality,  and  that  it,  through 
a  communication  of  this  reality,  gains  a  new  and 
cosmic  nature  for  man.  What  religion  more  fully 
meets  such  demands  as  that  which  makes  the  Kingdom 
of  God  its  central  idea,  and  which  promises  to  help 
the  individual  not  only  in  a  "given"  world,  but  to 
guide  him  to  a  new  world  ?  And  this  new  world  is 
contiguous  with  man  not  only  from  the  external ;  it 
also  becomes  one's  own  world  from  within  and  as  a 
Whole ;  and  as  each  particular  point  in  life  has  now 
to  be  decided  by  reference  to  the  Whole,  and,  indeed, 
has  to  carry  the  Whole  within  itself,  life  gains  a  task 
which  cannot  be  measured  and  a  greatness  superior  to 
that  of  the  world. 

The  union  of  the  human  and  the  Divine  constitutes 
the  nucleus  of  all  genuine  religion,  and  it  is  the 
manner  in  which  this  union  is  conceived  that  con- 
stitutes the  main  characteristics  of  the  particular 
religions.  Christianity  has  pursued  this  problem  to 
its  final  depths,  since  it  not  only  effects  partic- 
ular relations  of  the  Divine  and  the  human,  but 
presents  a  full  union  of  the  two  natures,  and  has 
courageously  maintained  the  indestructibility  of  the 
Divine  in  the  midst  of  all  the  perversions  of  the 
human  situation.  Not  all  the  crippling  of  this  idea 
through    unhappy   dogmatic    formulations   can    hide 


THE   ETERNAL   IN   CHRISTIANITY  545 

the  fact  that  the  religious  form  presents  here  a  truth 
which  is  the  indispensable  presupposition  of  every 
effort  after  truth,  and  without  which  our  life  loses 
all  possibility  of  a  durable  support. 

A  warm  love  towards  all  humanity  runs  through 
Christianity  ;  it  longs  to  redeem  every  individual  :  it 
gives  man  a  value  beyond  all  special  achievements 
and  on  the  other  side  of  all  mental  and  moral  ddds ; 
it  has  been  the  first  to  bring  the  pure  inwardness  of  the 
soul  to  a  clearer  expression.  But  it  lias  also,  through 
the  linking  of  the  human  to  a  Divine  and  Eternal 
Order,  raised  life  beyond  all  the  petty-human  with  its 
civic  ordinances  and  social  interests.  He  who.  with  the 
best  intention,  views  Christianity  as  a  mere  means  for 
the  betterment  of  the  social  situation,  draws  it  from 
the  heights  of  its  nature,  and  deprives  it  of  the  main 
constituent  of  its  greatness  the  emancipation  from 
the  petty-human  within  the  depths  of  tli<'  human 
itself.  It  is  essentially  the  nature  of  Christianity 
that  it  transplants  man  into  a  new  world  over 
against  the  nearest-at-hand  world;  it  has  planted  the 
fundamental    conviction    of    Platonism    of   the    exis 

tenceof  an  Eternal  Order  over  againsl   the  world  ol 

time  amongst  a  great  portion  of  the  human  pace,  and 

has  given  a  mighty  impetus  to  ;ill  effort  But  it  has, 
though  it  separated  the  Eternal  from  Time,  brought  it 
back  again  into  Tim'-,  and  through  this  presence  of  the 
Eternal  it  has,  for  the  first  time,  |>r<>p<>s<<l  to  mankind 
and  to  each  individual  :i  fundamental  innei  renewal, 
and  through  this  has  inaugurated  a  genuine  history. 

In  onlcr  to  render  the  Life  process  of  Christianity 
characteristic  and  significant  two  different  elements 
l,av<-  to  be  taken  into  account     ^  conception  of  the 


54-6  CHRISTIANITY    AND   THE   PRESENT 

Spiritual  Life  and  a  valuation  of  the  actual  world- 
situation.  A  hard  contradiction  and  an  immense 
movement  issue  from  the  contact  of  the  two  elements : 
that  which  from  within  is  real  and  necessary,  is 
set  back  and  rejected  by  the  surface-reality  nearest- 
at-hand.  Thus,  life  finds  itself  within  a  power- 
ful coil,  and  a  great  decision  becomes  urgent.  Shall 
the  new  world  which  arises  from  within  and  which, 
viewed  inwardly,  appears  the  most  certain  thing 
of  all,  gain  our  energy  and  disposition  in  spite 
of  the  contradiction  of  the  whole  remaining  world  ? 
Or  shall  we  merely  accept  the  fulness  of  the  external 
world  and  allow  the  overthrow  of  our  inwardness  to 
take  place  ?  There  is  here  no  middle  course.  Chris- 
tianity has  decided  for  the  first  alternative ;  but  it  is 
important  to  bear  in  mind  that  Christianity  presents 
no  ready-made  conclusion,  but  that  it  brings  forth  an 
inexhaustible  movement.  Christianity  before  all  else 
is  great  in  that  it  takes  up  the  experiences  and  the 
opposites  of  life  in  their  widest  extent,  and  fastens 
them  together  into  a  Whole ;  it  is  great  in  stirrings, 
struggles,  and  transformations  ;  it  appears  before  all 
else  as  a  powerful  current  of  life  which  indeed  does 
not  flow  into  vagueness  ;  but  over  against  all  attempts 
to  make  it  deviate  from  its  course  it  adheres  to  its 
main  tendency.  The  whole  of  the  Spiritual  Life  and 
the  total  trend  of  human  things  point  in  the  same 
direction.  Thus,  Christianity  is  not  a  special  pheno- 
menon by  the  side  of  other  similar  phenomena,  but 
is  the  main  struggle  for  the  soul  of  man.  It  has 
within  the  domain  of  religion,  and,  along  with  this, 
in  the  deepest  configuration  of  life,  brought  forth 
to  an  historical  realisation  what  genuine  spirituality 


THE    ETERNAL   IN   CHRISTIANITY  547 

according    to    its    total    nature    must     demand    as 
indispensable. 

Thus,  there  is  no  need  of  a  breach  with  Christianity  ; 
it  can  be  to  us  what  an  historical  religion  pre-eminently 
is  meant  to  be — a  sure  pathway  to  truth,  an  awakener 
of  immediate  and  intimate  life,  a  vivid  representation 
and  realisation  of  an  Eternal  Order  which  all  the 
changes  of  Time  cannot  possess  or  destroy. 

2.  The  Maintenance  of  this  Nucleus  against 
the  Changes  of  Time 

Let  us  now  consider  somewhat  more  closely  how 
this  Christian  cardinal  type  of  life  retains  its  truth 
over  against  civilisation  and  culture  Wc  limit  our- 
selves  to  the  consideration  of  the  chief  changes  effected 
in  the  world  of  ideas.  Our  assertion  proceeds  from 
the  fact  that  these  changes  undoubtedly  enter  into  a 
sharp  conflict  with  the  traditional  existent  ial-form  of 
Christianity,  but  the  Substance  of  Christianity  is  not 
able  to  free  itself  from  antiquated  forms  and  gain  h 
purer  and  more  energetic  development  without  much 
trouble  and  toil.  The  mighty  expansion  which  the 
whole  of  modern  times  has  brought  forth  need  not 
become  hostile  to  Christianity.  Such  an  expan 
sion  can  be  assimilai i  <l  by  Christianity,  and  through 
the  contact  Christianity  can  even  !»<•  strengthened, 
provided  it  turns  to  the  depth  of  its  own  nature, 
fortifies  itself  with  this  Substance  of  Christianity, 
and  simultaneously  finds  the  courage  for  ne*  *  ■«  .-»i i \ < • 

ness. 
la)  The  "Further  Development  over  against  Nat 
The  most   tangible  result  of  modem  investigation 

lias  been  the  immense  extension  <>i  the  natural  world 


548         CHRISTIANITY    AND  THE   PRESENT 

and  the  shrinkage  of  the  earthly  circle  to  a  minute 
littleness.  The  sharp  point  of  modern  investigation 
has  undoubtedly  turned  against  the  Church-form  of 
Christianity  in  so  far  as  the  latter  considers  the  earth 
as  the  centre  of  the  universe,  and  in  so  far  as 
it  makes  our  actions  decide  the  destiny  of  the  All. 
To  give  the  earth  such  a  significance,  in  spite  of  all 
the  transformations  of  modern  thought,  has  been 
attempted  by  an  apologetic  at  any  price  ;  but  all 
manipulations  of  possibilities  and  subterfuges  are  of 
no  avail  against  the  natural  impression  of  the  altered 
position  of  our  earthly  circle.  All  such  manipulations 
belong  to  a  geocentric  and  anthropocentric  mode  of 
thought  of  the  past.  But  when  the  new  mode  of 
thought  enters  deeply  into  the  realm  of  traditional 
ideas  and  feelings,  does  it  destroy  the  spiritual  sub- 
stance of  Christianity,  and  does  it  refute  the  convic- 
tion of  the  superiority  of  the  soul  of  man  ?  It  does 
this  in  no  manner.  For  why  should  the  expansion  of 
things  limit  itself  to  nature  ?  Why  should  not  the 
spiritual  as  well  penetrate  and  encompass  the  world  ? 
Indeed,  the  spiritual  must  do  this  if  the  web  of 
relations  of  particular  energies  observed  in  nature 
does  not  constitute  the  final  depth  of  reality,  but 
that  this  depth  is  to  be  sought  in  subsistence-by- 
themselves  of  things,  as  the  Spiritual  Life  alone 
offers.  It  may  be  that  we,  upon  this  earth,  are 
able  to  apprehend  but  a  small  segment  of  this  life, 
but  in  such  a  segment  the  cosmic  character  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  is  unmistakable.  The  fact  is  not  to  be 
overlooked  that,  in  any  comparison  with  the  outward 
extension  of  nature,  the  inward  transformations  more 
than  hold  the  balance.     For  a  progressive  intensify- 


THE   ETERNAL    IN   CHRISTIANITY  il.» 

ing  of  the  Life-process  lias  made  ever  more  clear  the  fact 
that  nature  is  not  the  final  reality  it  was  conceived  to 
be  by  an  older  mode  of  scientific  thought,  hut  that 

it  signifies  only  a  human  vista  of  reality.  The  Theory 
of  Knowledge  which  has  brought  to  a  clear  conscious- 
ness the  limitations  of  this  vista  on  account  of  our 
bodily  organisation  is  only  an  expression  of  the  inner 
growth  of  the  Life-process  beyond  mere  nature. 
Nature,  which  at  the  outset  entirely  surrounded  and 
captivated  man,  has  become  more  and  more  a  mere 
environment  to  him.  If  man  in  such  an  inwardness 
of  the  Life-process  has  gained  an  Archimedean  point. 
all  the  palpableness  of  sensuous  impressions  is  not 
able  to  endanger  the  priority  of  spirit.  The  earthly 
circle,  however,  notwithstanding  all  its  contraction, 
does  not  lose  its  significance  when  it  appears  as  an 
abode  where  cosmic  problems  arc  struggled  for.  and 
where  a  segment  of  reality  is  raised  to  a  higher  stage. 
Over  against  Infinity  man  appears  petty,  hut  he 
becomes  great  through  the  cosmic  life  and  its  turn  to 
spirit,  which  develops  also  within  him. 

Nature  has  not  only  extended  externally;   it  has 

also    altered    inwardly.      It    has    revealed    itself    as    a 

connected  causal    web  under  simple  law  s  •.   it    has  thus 

obtained  an  independence  through  winch  it  dismisses 

every   alien    influence  :is  an    unjust    intruder.      Along 

witli  this,  all  dependence  of  nature  upon  the  Spiritual 
Life  seems  for  the  momenl  to  cease,  and  especiall) 
all  sriisuous  miracle  is  placed  on  one  side  as  a  break 
in  the  order  of  aal  lire. 

Such  :i  rejection  of  miracle  is  directed  against  all 
religions,  lor  m  all  religions  miracle  is  "the  dearest 
child   of    faith."     But    nowhere   is   th<    rejection   of 


550         CHRISTIANITY   AND  THE   PRESENT 

miracle  more  pointedly  directed  than  towards  Chris- 
tianity which,  with  its  doctrine  of  the  bodily  resurrec- 
tion of  Jesus,  has  planted  miracle  in  the  very  nucleus 
of  religious  belief.  This  doctrine  constituted  not 
only  the  basis  of  the  convictions  of  the  apostles,  but  it 
has  remained  a  main  portion  of  the  teaching  of  the 
Church  up  to  the  present  day.  To  touch  this  subject 
may  appear  serious  even  to  men  who  otherwise  will- 
ingly follow  the  newer  mode  of  thinking.  For  must 
it  not  alienate  and  even  wound  our  feelings  to  resolve 
into  a  mere  semblance  an  event  which  was  at  the 
foundation  of  the  belief  of  millenniums,  and  which 
has  been  of  help  to  an  innumerable  number  of  souls  ? 
Also,  all  the  insufficiency  and  contradictions  of  the 
historical  records  leave  the  fact  untouched  that  the 
apostles  were  entirely  convinced  of  that  bodily 
resurrection,  and  that  this  conviction  alone  explains 
the  sudden  change  from  entire  despair  to  the  joyous 
certainty  which  culminated  within  their  souls  in  those 
dark  and  critical  days. 

On  the  other  side,  the  opposite  reasons  retain  a 
mighty  force,  once  the  exact  conception  of  nature  has 
been  adopted  and  once  an  historical  criticism  has  de- 
veloped. To  place  a  miracle  in  that  one  situation 
would  now  not  merely  mean  an  occasional  exception ; 
it  would  mean  an  overthrow  of  the  total  order  of  nature, 
as  this  has  been  set  forth  through  the  fundamental 
work  of  modern  investigation  and  through  an  incalcu- 
lable fulness  of  experiences.  What  would  justify  such 
a  breach  with  the  total  mode  of  reality  must  appear  to 
us  with  overwhelming,  indisputable  clearness.  Has 
the  traditional  fact  this  degree  of  certainty,  and  can- 
not it  be  explained  in  any  other  way  ?     Who  is  able 


THE    ETERNAL   IN   CHRISTIANITY  55J 

to  assert  this  with  entire  certainty  \     If  the  superiority 

of  the  Divine  was.  on  this  particular  occasion,  to  be 
proclaimed  in  a  tangible   manner,  why    did    all    this 
happen  for  the  small  circle  of  believers  alone,  and  why 
did  it  not  happen  to  others  \     There  seems,  however, 
to  have  been  necessary  a  certain  state  of  the  souls  of 
the  disciples  to  make  them  see  what  they  thought  they 
saw;    but   in    all  this    there   is  found   a   psychic    and 
subjective  factor  in  operation — a  factor  whose  potency 
is  very  difficult  to  define  and  to  mark  its  boundaries. 
It  would  have  been  a  fact  of  a  wonderful   nature  if 
the    souls    of    the    disciples,    from    within,   became 
suddenly   and   without    intermediary    convinced    of 
the  continuation  of  the  life  and   the  presence  of  the 
Master:  all  this  would  have  been  n<>  sensuous  miracle 
— no  break  in  the  course  of  nature.      l>ut  we  have  to 
bear  in  mind  how  times  of  strong  religious  agitation 
and    convulsion   are  so  little  qualified    to  judge  <«»ii 
cerning  external  phenomena, and  how  easily  a  psychic 

state   solidifies  into  a  supposed  percept  !      W  ithui  and 

without  Christianity  there  are  numerous  examples 
of  the  sensuous  appearance  of  a  dead  person  being  coo 
sidered  to  be  fully  authenticated  by  the  narrower  circle 
of  friends.  Savonarola  appeared  more  t liana  hundred 
times  after  his  death,  bul  always  to  thosewhose  hearts 
clung  to  him  ;  and  to  fifteen  nuns  of  the  convent  of 
St  Lucia  he  gave  the  consecrated  water  through  the 
opening  in  their  grill  Cf.  Ha  i  ,  Sa\  onarola,  2nd 
ed..  pp.  99  and  toll.) 

We  can,  indeed,  Lay  on  one  Bide  such  analogies,  and 

still  assert  the  uniqueness  and  inexplicablenesa  of  the 

rents  at  the  death  of  Jesus,     to  the  midst  of  all  the 

obscurity  of  the  tacts,  no  interpretation  is  pressed  by 


552         CHRISTIANITY    AND  THE   PRESENT 

us  as  being  universally  valid.  Hut  on  one  point  perfect 
clearness  ought  to  reign — as  to  what  such  supposed 
events  can  and  may  be  for  our  own  life  and  faith. 
The  bodily  resurrection  is  an  historical,  or  asserted 
as  an  historical  fact.  Such  a  fact  is  either  capable  of 
proof  or  incapable  of  it.  If  it  is  capable,  it  can  be 
proved  to  everyone — even  to  the  greatest  unbeliever, 
and  its  acknowledgment  needs  no  personal  disposition. 
If  it  is  not  capable  of  proof  or  at  least  of  sufficient 
proof,  religion  can  never  make  it  a  duty.  Even  in  con- 
nection with  any  point  less  critical  and  less  difficult 
than  is  here  in  question,  religion  does  not  compel  us 
to  accept  as  proved  what  in  reality  has  not  been  proved. 
Otherwise  expressed  :  the  acknowledgment  of  an  his- 
torical fact  is  a  matter  of  knowledge  and  not  of 
faith.  Faith  has  as  its  object  what  is  of  a  timeless 
nature — what  is  able  to  be  immediately  present  to 
each  individual  and  able  to  manifest  its  own  elevating 
energy ;  faith,  in  fact,  carries  within  itself  an  inner 
movement  and  a  courageous  ascent  of  the  spirit  of 
man.  If  an  historical  fact  is  put  in  the  place  of 
this  object  of  faith,  faith  is  externalised,  and  reduces 
religion  to  a  level  which  has  been  passed  by  the  most 
important  movements  of  the  world  ;  and  thus  religion 
becomes  entangled  in  an  insoluble  contradiction  with 
the  whole  of  the  rest  of  life.  If,  then,  the  belief  in 
the  bodily  resurrection  of  Jesus  threatens  to  break 
up  the  whole  of  Christianity,  wherein  does  faith  in 
the  truth  of  Christianity  obtain  its  final  root  ?  Are 
the  new  contents  of  life,  which  affirm  an  emancipa- 
tion from  all  petty-human  capacities,  and  which  pro- 
claim a  new  world  of  love  and  grace,  to  be  explained 
as  mere  illusions  if  they  are  not  guaranteed  to  you 


THE    ETERNAL   IN   CHRISTIANITY 

by  a  tangible  proof  of  a  bodily  resurrection  \     If.  in 

the  manner  of  the  Middle  Ages,  we  make  the  reality  of 
the  spiritual  dependent  upon  a  sensuous  embodiment, 
we  shall  obtain  the  pertinacity  of  what  is  termed 
historical  belief,  but  through  this,  we  confess  our 
unbelief  in  the  all-presence  of  the  Spiritual  and  Divine 
Life;  and  consequently  we  have  parted  from  the 
religion  of  the  spirit  and  of  personality  and  have  sunk 
back  into  a  religion  of  signs  and  wonders.  Men 
certainly  do  not  intend  to  do  this,  and  yet  they  allow 
the  confusion  which  originates  through  the  mixing 
up  of  history  and  faith  to  remain,  and  which  has 
brought  so  many  entanglements  upon  humanity. 
We  have  already  quoted  the  words  of  Fichte  where 
he  pointed  out  that  the  emphasis  on  the-  historical 
has  resulted  in  considering  subsidiary  tacts  as  of  equal 
validity  with  the  main  facts,  and  even  at  tin-  expense 
of  the  main  facts,  thus  coercing  the  main  tacts  and 
tormenting  the  conscience. 

Religion,     which     has     already     shown     so     much 
energy,  will  finally  find  the  energy  to  subsist   with 
out    sensuous    signs    and    wonders.       It    discowrs    the 
true    wonder     in     the    Spiritual     Life     it  sell,    which, 
with    its    cosmic    ereat  ivencss    and     its    deepening    ol 

itself,  demands  as  well  as  manifests  the  presence 
0f  the  Absolute  Life.     Nature,  through  its  abandon 

infill    of  sensuous   miracle,    i-    LD   no  way    surrendered 

i()  mere  mechanism,  and  the  denial  of  a  break  in  its 
order  does  not  mean  a  breaking  off  of  all  relationship 
with  spint.  Mechanism  itself  has  presuppositions 
which  it  is  not  able  to  explain  and  which  point 
beyond  it.  as  for  instance,  the  laws  of  nature,  n  ciprocal 
effects,  theascenl  of  types  and  of  animate  life  out  oi  a 


554  CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE   PRESENT 

seemingly  scattered  and  soulless  agitation.  And  with- 
out giving  straight-away  a  religious  significance  to  all 
this,  yet  a  depth  of  reality  is  here  unmistakable ;  and 
that  the  whole  of  nature  finally  serves  the  whole  of 
spirit  is  held  fast  by  religion  in  spite  of  the  impossi- 
bility of  a  detailed  application.  But  the  main  fact  for 
religion  remains  in  the  wonder  of  the  Spirit  and  the 
wonder  in  the  Spirit ;  and  in  the  most  decisive  manner 
religion  must  reject  whatsoever  threatens  to  weaken 
the  significance  of  this  wonder  and  its  consolidating 
and  elevating  energy. 

Not  less  severely  does  modern  natural  science  collide 
with  traditional  Christianity  in  the  theory  of  evolu- 
tion. The  fact  that  the  world  has  at  the  present  day 
entered  into  the  current  of  scientific  investigation, 
that  its  elements  participate  in  this  movement,  that 
out  of  the  supposed  co-existence  of  types  a  succession 
of  types  has  been  shown,  and  that  especially  the 
organic  kingdom  has  climbed  from  simple  beginnings, 
through  a  long  ascent  to  its  present  height  —  all 
this  certainly  contradicts  not  less  irreconcilably  the 
traditional  doctrine  of  creation  and  the  whole  notion 
of  the  bringing  of  things  into  existence  through 
a  will  "  beyond,"  as  the  newer  astronomy  contra- 
dicts the  old  geocentric  mode  of  thinking.  It  is 
only  certain  forms  of  the  evolutionary  theory,  and 
in  no  way  all  its  forms,  which  signify  a  danger  to  the 
substance  of  religion.  If  the  interpretation  of  the 
universe  from  the  evolutionary  point  of  view  signifies 
that  the  whole  content  of  the  universe  has  proceeded 
without  the  operation  of  any  effective  law  from  within, 
but  solely  through  chance  collisions  of  elements,  so 
that  all  the  higher  is  simply  a  product  of  the  lower, 


THE    ETERNAL   IN   CHRISTIANITY 

and  so  that  all  independence  loses  its  value,  then 
certainly  a  victory  of  mechanism  and  materialism 
has  captured  each  and  every  religion.  If  evolution, 
however,  signifies  rather  this— if  it  signifies  that  tin- 
attainment  of  the  higher  stages  became  possible  only 
after  having  passed  through  the  lower  stages  ;  that  in 
each  stage  the  Whole  brings  forth  a  new  beginning, 
and  consequently  all  movement  has  the  foundation 
of  a  timeless  order,  and  its  advancement  happens 
within  Time  but  not  from  Time,  then  evolution  can  in 
no  manner  injure  the  substance  of  religion.  If  things 
are  thus,  there  is  a  growth  in  the  depth  <>!'  reality  as 
well  as  in  the  living  presence  of  a  higher  order. 

Indeed,  we  observe  in  natural  science-  itself  an 
inner  law  of  a  timeless  kind  restraining  more  and 
more  the  mere  mechanism  of  a  "  becoming"  brought 
forth  through  external  adaptation  to  environment,  re- 
straining the  lawless  Hux  of  forms  and  the  predomin- 
ance of  a  blind  chaos  of  natural  selection.  Hut 
religion  is  not  able,  however,  to  base  its  convictions 
upon  the  currents  of  natural  investigation,  and  there 

is  no  need  for  it  to  do  so  because  the  dawning  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  itself  is  a  proof  to  it  of  a  new  stage 
over  against  all  nature,  and  of  the  growth  of  a  further 
new  stage  within  the  Spiritual  laic  itself.  Thus  the 
Hicrher  is  nol  ;i  mere  More  and  a  mechanical  result 
of  the  lower,  hui  within  this  Higher  an  immediate 
proof  of  Absolute  Life  is  imbedded.  Evolution  is 
then  ;i  testimony  not  against  but  for  religion. 

\()    unbiassed     mind    is    able    l«.    denj    B    "  hi  COm 

ing"  within  nature  and  spirit.     Reason  is  for  us  no 

ready-made    thing;    within    our     own    circle     it      has 

to  be   wrestled  for,   and    the   wrestling   needs   both 


556         CHRISTIANITY    AND  THE   PRESENT 

the  movement  of  external  things  and  an  aetivity 
on  our  own  part.  But  the  question  which  separates 
minds  is :  whether  reason  is  a  mere  effect  of  a 
"  becoming,"  or  whether  it  ean  be  an  effect  without 
at  the  same  time  being  a  principle — whether  the 
universe  must  not  be  grounded  upon  reason  in  order 
to  engender  reason  at  all.  He  who  occupies  the 
former  standpoint  draws  reality  down  to  its  lowest 
stages  and  is  able  to  see  no  more  in  all  the  rest  than 
a  construction  of  that  lower.  But  wherever  character- 
istic features  and  independence  are  accorded  to  the 
Higher,  wherever  it  stands  clearly  before  us  in  all 
its  fulness  and  depth,  there  reason  is  recognised  as  a 
principle  in  the  midst  of  all  its  "  becoming,"  and  there 
the  evolutionary  theory  and  religion  can  and  must 
walk  together  hand  in  hand. 

(/3)  The  Further  Development  over  against  History 
and  Culture. — Changes  in  human  life  and  actions 
threaten  Christianity  still  more  directly  than  the 
changes  in  our  view  of  nature.  Here,  again,  our  in- 
vestigation leads  to  the  result  that  an  irreconcilable 
collision  originates  not  so  much  in  connection  with  the 
real  facts  of  the  movements  of  life  and  actions  as  in 
connection  with  certain  problematic  tendencies  which 
cling  to  these  facts,  and  which  grow  in  seeming  in- 
separableness  along  with  them.  All  that  is  true  and 
genuine  in  these  movements  of  life  and  actions  can  be 
accepted  by  Christianity,  but  Christianity  can  accept 
anything  only  in  so  far  as  it  differentiates  clearly 
between  the  Eternal  Substance  and  the  temporal 
existential-form,  and  only  so  far  as  it  strives  after  a  new 
existential-form  which  corresponds  to  the  demands  of 
the  situation  reached  by  the  labours  of  the  ages. 


THE    ETERNAL    IN    CHRISTIANITY 


First  of  all.  an  opposition  to  religion  originates  on 
account  of  the  rise  of  an  historical  view  and  treatment 
of  existence.  This  view  and  treatment  brine-all  things 
into  a  flux  and  unveil  an  incessant  change.  To  draw 
religion — the  work  of  God — into  the  current  of  time 
and  to  adjust  its  stability  to  the  changes  of  the  human 
situation,  means  to  destroy  it  at  its  very  foundation. 
A  religion  based  upon  mere  time— accepted  with  the 
possibility  of  a  notice  to  quit — is  no  religion.  Chris- 
tianity, however,  has  welded  together  with  special 
energy  not  only  a  fundamental  body  of  doctrines  and 
organisations,  but  also  a  characteristic  content  of  life 
— a  content  which  is  to  defy  all  the  changes  of  time. 

This  is  the  first  glimpse  of  the  opposition,  hut  we 
shall  see  that  it  does  not  remain  in  possession  of  all  this 
harshness.  First  of  all.  human  life  refuses  to  surrender 
itself  entirely  into  this  flux.  Modern  limes,  in  their  first 
fresh  impression  of  the  movement  of  things,  saw  only 
the  bright  side  of  thechange  they  saw  only  the  greater 
freedom,  the  rich  manifold  of  tilings,  etc.  Hut  we  are 
just  beginning  to  discover  difficull  drawbacks  in  coil 
nection  wit  h  the  facts — the  instability  of  all  results,  the 

speedy  toppling  oxer  of  all  standards  and  values,  the 

dissolution  of  life  into  mere  moments  which  drive  and 

dislodge  each  other.  More  ami  more  we  lose  an  inward 
connect  inn  of  life  ;  we  become  the  puppets  of  an  ever 
changing  kaleidoscopic  situation,  and  arc  in  danger  of 

becoming  engulfed  into  not  h  bigness.      In  t  he  presence 

of  such  a  catastrophe  we  are  no  long<  r  able  to  speak  <■! 
a  history,  and  least  of  all  ofa  historj  ofa  spiritual  kind. 
For  some  kind  of  a  persist  ing  factor  is  present  in  all 
history  ;  and  in  history  of  a  spiritual  kind  there  is  pre 
si  -II i  an  inner  represental  i<»n  of  the  past,  a  view  of  the 


558  CHRISTIANITY    AND  THE   PRESENT 

whole  course,  a  stepping  out  of  the  stream  of  time,  and 
a  transference  to  a  timeless  contemplation  sub  specie 
ceterni.  If  life  ascends  towards  such  an  eternity, 
it  ascends  of  necessity  towards  religion,  which  calls 
for  a  return  to  final  depths,  calls  for  the  illumina- 
tion of  the  fundamental  relationship  of  man  to  the 
All,  calls  for  the  setting  forth  of  the  abiding 
tasks  and  experiences  of  life,  calls  for  the  union  of 
our  life  with  the  Absolute  Life,  and  above  all  else 
to  become  the  custodian  of  Eternity.  If  religion  is 
anything  at  all,  it  is  that  which  gives  man  a  secure 
foundation,  and  which  measures  his  undertakings 
by  means  of  elevated  norms.  If  thus  a  longing 
after  Eternity  arises  through  the  fresh  experience 
and  deep  feeling  of  the  vanity  of  all  the  mere  life 
of  time,  the  turn  to  religion  will  gain  full  energy 
and  veracity. 

But  is  religion  able  to  satisfy  the  aspiration  after 
Eternity  without  having  to  suppress  all  movement  and 
without  having  to  prohibit  the  full  flow  of  the  current 
of  life  ?  The  aspiration  is  not  satisfied  if  the  tradi- 
tional existential-form  signifies  its  final  essence.  The 
mode  of  thinking  which  conceived  eternal  truth  only 
as  it  presented  itself  in  time  (of  course  this  is  an 
indispensable  element  of  religion),  and  also  which 
believed  in  the  possibility  of  man  reaching  it  at  one 
stroke,  has  become  untenable.  This  mode  of  thinking 
corresponded  to  the  old  view  of  truth  which  has  been 
replaced  by  another  view.  According  to  the  old  view, 
the  truth  appeared  so  intimately  related  to  man  that  a 
courageous  tension  of  energy  seemed  able  immediately 
to  reach  it  at  one  stroke,  and  then  an  alleged  durable 
truth  was  set  forth  and  which  had  only  to  be  guarded 


THE   ETERNAL   IN   CHRISTIANITY  59 

in  a  true  and  heroic  manner.  Thus,  it  was  believed 
at  the  height  of  Greek  development  that  scientific 
knowledge  could  accomplish  this  for  once  and  for  all  ; 
and  men  believed  themselves  able  to  trace  out  a 
political  constitution  valid  for  all  times.  Correspond- 
ing to  this,  it  was  believed  that  religion  could  be 
brought  into  an  inviolable  and  durable  situation  in 
the  same  manner.  But  it  is  characteristic  of  modern 
times,  on  the  contrary,  that  a  wider  division  between 
the  truth  of  the  Spiritual  Life  and  the  immediate 
situation  of  man  has  taken  place,  so  that  now,  if  an 
Eternal  is  not  to  be  lost,  man  lias  to  labour  in  the 
depth  of  his  being,  and  it  is  only  alter  a  toilsome 
struggle  that  the  Eternal  can  be  gained  and  can 
become  the  true  possession  of  man.  The  Eternal,  in 
itself  certain  and  firm,  is  to  us  an  incessanl  task. 
Christianity  is  able  to  take  over  this  latter  new  only 
when  it  differentiates  between  an  existential-form 
characteristic  of,  and  appropriate  to,  a  certain  age 
from  the  timeless  Substance  which  is  effective  in  all 
ages ;  only  when  it  works  out  the  characteristic  Life 

process  and  its  new  reality  founded  in   God,  and   only 

when   it    uplifts    clearly   this    Life-process    through 
thought  and  feeling  from  all  mere-human  formations 

of  doctrines  and  works.      Then    Christianity  will  give 

its  full  rights  to  the  Eternal  as  well  as  to  the  temporal, 
and  the  necessary  contad  between  the  two  will  lead 

to  no  injurious  narrowness. 

The    turn     towards    history     and     culture     brought 

forth  not  only  more  mobility,  it  also  raised  man  to 
greater  self-activity  and  to  the  awakening  of  slum 
berinc    energies   within    him.      Life,    through   such 
experiences,  i1^  immeasurabl)    raised,  and   man  gains 


660         CHRISTIANITY   AND  THE    PRESENT 

power  not  only  over  nature  but  also  over  his  own 
particular  relationships  and  over  his  own  soul :  he 
lias  now  undertaken  the  construction  of  a  kingdom 
of  reason  on  a  great  scale.  Such  a  life,  through  its 
possession  of  reality,  has  made  all  things  far  richer  in 
content  than  could  ever  have  happened  in  the  times 
when  man  stood  impotent  over  against  the  darkness 
of  the  world,  and  expected,  through  tarrying  and 
hoping,  his  entire  welfare  from  a  power  beyond.  Now, 
does  not  such  a  self-consciousness  of  human  potency 
contain  a  strong  protest  against  all  religions,  and 
especially  against  a  mode  of  Christianity  which  pro- 
claims the  vanity  of  mere  man  with  such  special 
emphasis  ?  A  clash  is  here  quite  evident,  and  the 
question  is,  whether  the  necessities  of  life  itself  tend 
to  level  down  this  distinction,  and  whether,  indeed, 
religion  goes  out  half  way  to  meet  the  desire  for 
levelling  it  down. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  through  the  develop- 
ment of  modern  culture  far  more  has  resulted  from 
man's  capacities  than  had  hitherto  been  the  case,  but 
it  is  doubtful  whether  it  is  the  energy  of  the  mere 
individual  which  has  brought  forth  all  this ;  it  is 
doubtful  whether,  in  the  very  process  of  this  develop- 
ment, nothing  besides  the  merely  human  was  at 
work.  We  have  already  noticed  that  Spiritual  Life 
does  not  proceed  from  historico-social  connections. 
In  so  far  as  civilisation  and  culture  are  no  more 
than  products  of  such  connections  they  are,  not- 
withstanding all  their  claims  at  being  able  to  form 
a  higher  stage  of  things,  afflicted  with  the  curse 
of  semblance  and  untruth.  Indeed,  the  further 
they   progress,    the    more   do  they   get   away   from 


THE   ETERNAL   IN   CHRISTIANITY  561 

their  true  basis,  and  thus  become  artificial  and  empty, 
and  fall  into  the  petty  and  the  common. 

Whatsoever  is  genuine  in  civilisation  and  culture 
rests  upon  the  fact  that  a  superhuman  Spiritual  Life 
with  its  cosmic  creativeness  is  operative  within  them. 
Through  such  a  connection  with  the  Spiritual  Life  all 
that  is  great  in  man  is  not  given  by  nature  but  origi- 
nates from  a  deeper  basis,  and  must  rest  permanently 
upon  this  basis.  When  it  does  this,  the  very  sense  of 
power  will  contain  a  consciousness  of  entire  depen- 
dence on  this  basis  and,  at  the  same  time,  will  contain 
a  denial  of  all  merely  natural  individuality.  Civilisa- 
tion and  culture  will  not  then  think  lightly  of  religion, 
and  will  not  attempt  to  push  it  back,  but  they  will 
invoke  it  for  their  own  preservation  and  purification, 
and  for  the  elevation  of  man  beyond  the  region  of 
the  petty-human.  All  merely  secular  culture  will 
now  be  seen  through  as  a  mere  farce,  since  man 
has  realised  that  genuine  culture  has  not  merely  to 
develop  extant  powers  but  has  to  form  a  new  being 
— helps  to  develop  an  ascent  from  mere  time  to  a 
timeless  order,  and  from  mere  man  to  a  world- 
embracing  spirituality. 

Religion,  however,  is  able  to  correspond  to  such  a 

"  call  "of  culture  only  if  it  .grasps  its  own  task  in  a  great 
;iiid  free  sense       Religion  must  not   consider   that    the 

Divine  in  some  externa]  kind  of  way  docs  the  work, 

and  thus   reducing  life  to   a   merely  passive    level,  hu! 
far  more  it    has   to    posit   itsell    into    the   centre   of  the 

highesl  activity,  and  yel  must  never  forgel  thai  such 

a  creative   activity  is   fundamentally   different   from 

merely  natural  development   of  energy,      ind,  over 

againsl   culture,  religion  must  ;it  .'ill  times  assert   its 

36 


568  CHRISTIANITY    AND   THE   PRESENT 

rights  to  prove  and  to  winnow,  for  it  is  religion— the 
power  which  draws  upon  the  deepest  source  of  life 
— which  takes  to  itself  the  whole  of  man  and  offers 
a  fixed  standard  for  all  his  undertakings.  Religion, 
instead  of  being  carried  on  the  face  of  the  changing 
currents  of  civilisation  and  culture,  must  provide 
through  its  timeless  truth  a  secure  foothold  for  the 
remainder  of  life.  It  must  cavil  less  at  the  transient 
and  particular  in  the  domains  of  knowledge  and  life, 
and  rather  undertake  to  test  their  whole  meaning ; 
it  has  to  hold  fast  to  the  fact  that  all  civilisation  and 
culture  are  only  phenomena  of  the  Spiritual  Life  and 
not  the  Spiritual  Life  itself,  and  that  consequently 
these  exhibit  only  a  few  of  the  many  possibilities  and 
phases  of  things  which  have  changed  in  the  past  and 
will  continue  to  change  in  the  future.  Religion  is 
thus  unable  to  measure  and  to  pass  judgment  on 
things  without  holding  up  definite  aims  before 
civilisation  and  culture,  but  it  will  accomplish  this 
task  less  directly  than  indirectly :  it  will  accomplish 
it  through  the  working  out  of  the  further  development 
of  the  total-life  which  connects  and  encompasses  all 
the  provinces  of  knowledge  and  life  with  itself.  It 
is  through  this  reciprocal  relationship  that  civilisation 
and  culture  can  assert  their  independence  and  free- 
dom of  movement. 

In  this  reciprocity  then  religion  has  not  only  to  give 
but  also  to  take.  For  the  fundamental  condition  on( 
which  religion  finds  its  secure  superiority  comes  to  a  full 
effect  in  man  when  it  finds  an  appropriate  existential- 
form  ;  and  man  is  not  able  to  find  this  form  without  the 
aid  of  civilisation  and  culture.  Thus,  we  may  hope  that 
such    change  which   to-day  urges  culture  to  oppose 


THE   ETERNAL   IN   CHRISTIANITY  563 

religion  may  finally  serve  the  main  aims  of  religion,  so 
that  a  common  spiritual  world  may  span  the  provinces 
of  both  religion  and  culture. 

This  homogeneousness  of  both  has  to  be  worked 
out  over  against  the  traditional  forms  not  only  of 
culture  but  also  of  religion.  Religion  must  not 
bring  forth  simply  that  which  lies  by  the  side  of  the 
rest  of  life — simply  handling  its  one-sided  content 
alongside  of  other  contents  which  it  deems  as  not 
belonging  to  itself  and  which  it  treats  indifferently. 
Religion  must  never  consider  itself  as  an  isolated 
province  but  as  the  characteristic  depth  of  the  totality 
of  life  ;  and  it  must  consider  that  its  full  energy  and 
intimate  knowledge  are  to  be  reached  on  this  pathway 
alone.  Through  such  an  insight,  religion  will  neither 
be  anxious  to  win  the  individual  to  some  kind  of  a 
mere  assent  to  truth  nor  to  lead  individuals  to  some 
ready-made  spiritual  world,  but  it  will  far  more 
constantly  attempt  to  build  up  and  hold  forth  a  Whole 
of  the  Spiritual  Life  within  the  human  domain  over 
against  the  immense  hindrances  and  perversions  of  an 
indifferent  and  hostile  world.  We  need  a  religion  of 
the  total  Spiritual  Life  and  not  one  of  the  mere 
individual  or  a  one  of  the  sum-total  of  any  number 

of   individuals;   we    need    as    our    own    that    religion 

which  lias  set  forth  more  expressively  than  any  other 
religion  the  central  conception  <>r  the    Kingdom   of 

God.      Hut   here,    however,    it    is    necessary    to    purify 

further  the  traditional  form  if  that  which  from  of  old 
has  worked  as  an  ideal  and  a  demand  is  t<»  find  its 
energetic   achievemenl    and    to   become    the    entire 

possession  of  man. 

(7)  The   Further    Development    over    against   the 


564  CHRISTIANITY    AND  THE   PRESENT 

Changes  of  the  Spiritual  Life  in  Man. — The  most 
important  movements  of  the  day  have  brought  about 
great  changes  within  the  province  of  the  Spiritual 
Life.  But  the  fact  is  nowhere  more  perceptible  than 
in  the  changes  which  have  taken  place  in  connection 
with  the  traditional  existential- form  of  Christianity, 
but,  rightly  understood  and  carried  further,  these 
changes  promise  to  develop  the  inmost  essence  of 
Christianity,  and  to  extend  it  as  the  religion  of 
universal  life.  This  matter  deals  especially  with  the 
three  points  of  analysis  and  emancipation  of  the 
Spiritual  Life :  its  progressive  superiority  to  sensuous 
nature,  to  mere  history,  and  to  the  petty-human 
form  of  life.  This  emancipation  and  expansion  of 
the  Spiritual  Life  are  no  ready-made  results  which 
fall  upon  each  individual  in  his  smug  situation,  but  are 
movements  and  invitations  of  a  spiritual  kind  and  from 
which  no  individual,  who  is  to  maintain  human  power 
and  creativeness  on  the  heights  of  the  most  important 
movements  of  life,  dare  withdraw  himself;  for  these 
movements  of  the  Spiritual  Life  present  a  standard 
beyond  all  the  arbitrary  actions  of  individuals  and 
beyond  all  the  vacillations  of  the  moment. 

1.  The  Spiritual  Life  has,  upon  the  ground  of 
modern  times,  succeeded  in  obtaining  an  independ- 
ence over  against  sensuous  existence  in  all  its 
forms.  It  has  succeeded  in  obtaining  this  through 
a  more  energetic  excitation  and  exertion  of  self- 
activity — -an  activity  which  does  not  tolerate  a  pas- 
sive immersion  of  man  into  the  environment,  but 
which  precedes  and  measures  the  material  that  is 
presented  to  it  from  without,  and  even  weaves 
the   meaning   of    the    fundamental    construction    of 


THE   ETERNAL   IN   CHRISTIANITY  565 

the  world  from  within.  On  account  of  this,  the  sen- 
suous is  no  longer  able  to  remain  an  essentially  integral 
part  of  the  mental  construction,  but  signifies  now  only 
a  valuable  helper  and  even  an  essential  means  of  repre- 
senting the  meaning  of  the  mental  construction. 
Sensuous  nature  extends  to  the  domain  of  religion : 
we  find  this  first  in  the  senile  disposition  of  waning 
antiquity  as  well  as  in  the  simple-minded  way  in 
which  the  middle  ages  made  the  sensuous  an  essential 
part  of  religion.  But  to  the  greater  activity  of 
awakened  modern  times,  such  a  mixing  of  external 
signs  with  the  inner  life  has  become  something  magi- 
cal and  an  intolerable  hindrance  to  freedom.  This 
mingling  of  the  sensuous  and  the  spiritual  is  repre- 
sented in  the  main  by  Roman  Catholicism,  and  it  is 
largely  owing  to  this  that  the  strength  of  Catholicism 
was  due  in  former  times,  but  since  the  advent  of 
the  movement  towards  greater  self-activity  and  purer 
spirituality  of  humanity,  the  situation  suitable  to 
former  times  lias  given  way  to  an  inward  and  higher 
stage  of  life.  Hut  Protestantism  also,  which  has  pro- 
tested against  the  magic  <>i"  Catholicism,  has  by  no 
means  excluded  it;  it  holds  sensuous  miracle  in  high 
estimation  ;  it  preserves  a  sacramental  modi-  in  all  its 
tendencies,  and  this  shows  itself  in  its  doctrine  of 
salvation  through  the  "  blood  "  of  Christ  The  sacra- 
incuts  arc   a  child   of  an   age  of    deep   weariness  and 

spiritual  twilight:     Divine  energies  were  to  proceed 
towards  man,  hut  it  was  imagined  thai  these  energies 

needed    sensuous   signs  which,   however,   conceived    as 

necessary  pledges  of  the  truth  of  Divine  energies,  he 

came  more  than  sensuous.       In  order  to  hide  the  con- 
tradiction   imbedded    in    this,    a    dim     twilight     time 


566  CHRISTIANITY    AND   THE    PRESENT 

and  a  dreamy  disposition  of  life  are  necessary,  and  these 
are  needed  further  in  order  to  obtain  a  foothold  and 
conviction  in  the  midst  of  the  darkness  of  the  situation. 
The  fresher  life  of  modern  times  has  scattered  this 
twilight  and  has  reduced  an  alleged  piety  to  magic. 
The  residue  of  such  magic  which  has  remained 
in  Protestantism  works  all  the  more  vaguely,  the 
more  it  fails  to  understand  the  life  of  our  day. 

Many  have  found  and  do  find  to-day  a  sub- 
jective support  in  such  magic,  and  its  removal 
may  appear  to  such  minds  a  disaster.  But  it  is 
necessary  for  modern  man  to  bear  in  mind — and  this 
truth  is  of  the  very  essence  of  Christianity — that  when 
Christianity  entered  into  the  arena  of  time  as  a 
religion  of  pure  spirituality,  magic  served  as  help 
to  it  and  was  not  inseparably  connected  with  it. 
Certainly  such  magic  ought  not  to  disappear  before 
some  equivalent  appears.  The  equivalent  is  at  hand  : 
it  is  the  further  development  of  the  Spiritual  Life 
itself ;  and  this  development  can  take  place  through 
a  turn  of  life  to  a  level  beyond  all  externals — a  turn 
towards  itself  and  towards  a  total-activity — and 
through  the  winning  of  an  unassailable  reality  by 
means  of  a  development  of  a  basal  and  durable  life 
and  being.  If  the  sensuous  is  not  in  this  manner 
replaced  by  the  self-consolidation  of  the  Spiritual  Life, 
every  kind  of  spiritualisation  tends  to  wither  away,  so 
that  the  Middle  Ages  was  right  in  insisting  that  some- 
thing besides  the  sensuous  was  needful.  But  the 
sensuous  through  its  removal  from  the  centre  of  life 
becomes  in  no  way  superfluous  and  subordinate  for 
the  stimulation  of  man.  Indeed,  the  more  religion 
deepens  itself  by  means  of  the  whole  of  the  Spiritual 


THE   ETERNAL  IN   CHRISTIANITY  567 

Life,  the  more  it  makes  the  externa]  recede  into 
a  distance ;  the  less  religion  is  able  to  grasp 
the  idea,  the  more  necessary  becomes  the  pictorial, 
and  the  more  religion  needs  the  help  of  imagination 
and  art.  But  this  indispensable  means  does  not 
signify  the  reality  itself  and  will  not  coalesce  with 
it. 

2.  The  progressive  superiority  of  the  Spiritual  Life 
to  bare  history  has  occupied  our  attention  so  much 
that  it  is  not  necessary  here  to  do  more  than  remind 
ourselves  of  our  previous  conclusions.  '1  ne  fact  that  we 
as  children  of  modern  times  posit  all  the  offerings  of 
history  upon  our  own  day  and  adjust  them  from  such 
a  situation  comes  into  conflict  with  the  traditional 
form  of  Christianity.  Catholicism  is  not,  on  the 
whole,  troubled  with  this  entanglement  because  to  it 
past  and  present  join  themselves  intimately  in  the 
manner  of  the  Middle  .Ages,  and  also  because  the 
differences  of  the  generations  are  obliterated.  To 
Protestantism,  on  the  contrary,  the  distinction 
between  past  and  present  was  made  and  an  alleged 
yet  conscientious  return  to  the  former  became 
essential  :  it  attempted  to  carry  life  back  to  a  special 
epoch  the  beginnings  of  Christianity  and  to  shape 
il  in  accordance  with  this  epoch.  Hut  Protestantism 
discovered     that    it    was   still     more   essential    to    base 

religion  within  one's  own  life  and  personal  experience  ; 
but  the  attempt  to  cany  both  elements  the  ex 
perience  of  the  personal  life  and  its  binding  to  an 
historical  factor  has  miscarried  ;  and  this  fad  is  dis 
covered  to-day,  and  it  must  soon  become  intolerable. 
Catholicism  has  here  decidedly  tlw  logic  on  its  side 
when  it  makes  the  Church  and  its  past  the  guarantor 


568  CHRISTIANITY    AND  THE   PRESENT 

of  its  truth ;  whilst  Protestantism,  through  allowing 
matters  of  learned  investigation  and  of  an  historical 
nature  to  decide  concerning  the  meaning  of  life  and 
the  salvation  of  the  soul,  has  entered  into  grave 
danger.  If  Protestantism  is  to  remain  true  to  its 
main  idea,  it  must  subjugate  history  to  personal  life, 
and  this  means  a  radical  transformation  of  the  tradi- 
tional material. 

The  present  day  often  shows  an  uncertain  oscilla- 
tion of  the  religious  life  between  history  and  the 
present,  between  authority  and  personal  conviction ; 
one  hopes  to  help  the  personal  conviction  through  a 
retreat  to  the  past,  and  thus  the  rich  content  of 
history  is  supposed  to  procure  an  intuitive  content 
for  life  as  well  as  for  religion.  We  resign  ourselves, 
through  such  a  turn,  to  the  impressions  of  unique 
epochs  and  personalities ;  we  transpose  and  submerge 
ourselves  in  these  so  far  as  to  forget  ourselves ;  we 
seek  to  understand  such  epochs  and  personalities  as 
they  really  were,  and  the  intuitive  presentation  of 
such  pictures  seems  to  us  a  great  gain  in  truth. 
But  this  historical  and  relative  truth  is  not  the 
eternal  and  absolute  truth  upon  which  religion  must 
ever  insist.  The  interweaving  of  these  two  things  is 
not  far  removed  from  the  German  mode  of  conceiving 
life,  and  contains  the  danger  of  substituting  merely 
imitative  feeling  for  genuine  feeling,  many  truths  for 
the  one  truth,  mere  knowledge  for  life.  Let  us  give 
the  highest  honour  to  history  in  its  right  place,  but  let 
us  energetically  oppose  an  enervating  "  historism." 

We  are  in  entire  unison  with  the  spirit  of  Christi- 
anity when  we  place  history  and  its  results  in  a 
secondary  place.     It  is  true  that  the  assertion  of  the 


THE   ETERNAL   IN   CHRISTIANITY  569 

entrance  of  the  Divine  into  Time  made  by  Christianity 
has  heightened  mightily  the  significance  of  history,  and, 
indeed,  has  for  the  first  time  made  history  in  a  spirit- 
ual sense  possible.  But  Christianity  has  never  made 
the  temporal  life  the  main  fact,  and  has  never  turned 
the  nature  of  man  into  a  predominantly  historical 
nature.  For  all  that  happens  within  time  has  here  a 
worth  only  in  so  far  as  it  develops  what  is  eternal  and 
in  what  it  executes  for  the  eternal.  Thus  it  views  and 
values  not  eternity  by  means  of  time,  but  time  by  means 
of  eternity  ;  and  thus  it  finds  present  within  history  a 
greatness :  it  is  a  greatness  because  it  is  an  emanci- 
pation from  history — a  realisation  of  an  eternal  order. 
Herein  is  imbedded  the  demand  that  the  contemplation 
of  infinity  must  ever  remain  superior  to  all,  so  that 
Christianity  forms  an  irreconcilable  opposition  to  any 
form  of  evolution  or  of  "  historism."  The  more  ener- 
getic working  out  of  its  eternal  character-  (Ik-  aspira 
tion  after  a  present  superior  to  time — is  therefore 
no  defection  from  Christianity.  We  have  in  our 
previous  investigation  become  convinced  of  the  fact 
that  such  a  movement  is  not  a  relapse  into  the 
Enlightenment,  and  that  history  as  a  subsidiary 
element  retains  great  value.  We  have  already  seen 
that  a  "  here  and  now"'  superior  to  time  must  some 

how  through  religion  become  the  main  standard  of 
lite,  and  that  history  will  further  us  in  our  efforts  only 
in   so   far  as   wc  encompass  and  gOVOU  il   with  an  m 

dependenl  life. 

:>,.  The  third  aspect  of  the  emancipation  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  is  the  one  of  emancipating  it  from  ;i 
merely  human  existential-form.  We  have  already 
observed   how  the  modern  work  of  civilisation   and 


570  CHRISTIANITY    AND  THE    PRESENT 

culture  with  its  expansive  tendency  has  broken 
through  the  merely  human  existential-form,  and  we 
have  noticed  how  it  took  up  an  energetic  struggle 
for  the  driving  out  of  the  mere-human.  Throughout 
the  whole  development  of  modern  times,  the  Spiritual 
Life  has  severed  itself  from  a  merely  subjective 
inactivity  and  from  resting  upon  a  merely  human 
opinion ;  it  has  engendered  characteristic  contents 
and  necessities,  laws  and  methods ;  it  has  connected 
itself  into  an  independent  world  and  has  made  man 
a  mere  tool  and  means  for  its  development.  Modern 
development  finds  its  most  tangible  expression  in 
the  linking  of  the  Spiritual  Life  with  a  unique  and 
seemingly  free-moving  thought-process.  We  have 
observed  how  this  thought-process  pointedly  opposed 
not  only  Religion  and  Christianity  but  also  how  it 
lowered  morality  to  a  merely  subjective  and  sub- 
sidiary phenomenon,  and  how  it  undertook  to  disin- 
tegrate all  personal  life,  all  independent  self-sub- 
sistence, and  all  ideals  favourable  to  the  creation  of 
spiritual  energy. 

Now,  through  such  a  critical  situation  composed 
of  an  irreconcilable  entanglement,  the  emancipation 
of  the  Spiritual  Life  becomes  a  great  problem.  But 
the  reason  for  this  opposition  is  highly  problematic, 
but  we  dare  say  that  it  is  a  mistake — a  colossal 
mistake.  We  have  already  seen  in  this  book,  and 
the  same  idea  has  been  more  fully  developed  in  other 
works  of  the  author,  that  the  transformation  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  into  an  impersonal  thought-process 
destroys  it  to  its  very  foundation.  This  method  of 
treating  the  Spiritual  Life  becomes  its  self-distortion, 
whilst  at  the  same  time,  its  content  evaporates  more 


THE   ETERNAL   IN   CHRISTIANITY  571 

and  more  and  the  whole  life  is  transformed  into  a 
kingdom  of  abstract  values  which  slip  through  our 
hands  as  soon  as  they  are  grasped  and  subjected 
to  a  closer  examination.  If,  however,  the  idea  of  an 
emancipation  of  the  Spiritual  Life  frees  itself  from 
such  an  abstract  process,  and  when  it  possesses  the 
further  insight  that  the  Spiritual  Life,  in  order  to 
become  a  full  reality,  must  become  a  self-subsist- 
ence and  must,  through  a  persistent  self-develop- 
ment, encompass  all  activity,  then  this  movement  of 
thought  need  not  go  against  Christianity,  but  can 
quite  well  serve  for  the  furtherance  of  Christianity, 
whilst  simultaneously  it  brings  the  Spiritual  Life  and 
man  into  a  secure  relationship.  It  is  true  that  in 
Christianity  a  high  estimation  of  man  and  a  strong- 
love  for  man  are  found.  Hut  these  do  not  issue  out 
of  man  as  a  merely  natural  being  ;  they  do  not 
fortify  him  in  his  merely  human  self-assertion,  but 
they  see  him  in  the  light  of  a  new  world  and  inaugur- 
ate for  him  a  new  life  founded  in  God,  so  that  his 
estimation  and  love  rest,  if  not  upon  the  reality  itself, 
yet  upon  the  possibility  of  an  essential  transformation 

of  the  nature  of  man.  Throughout  genuine  Christi- 
anity everywhere  there  is  operative  a  yearning  after  a 
new  man  and  after  a  new  kingdom  of  peace  and  love. 

The  detailed  elaboration,  however,  which  this  aspira 

tion  found  in  earlier  ages  is  not   able  to  Satisfy  entirely 

our  age.  Life  in  those  ages,  notwithstanding  its  en- 
nobled efforts,  remained  too  much  within  the  domain  of 
human  frailty  and  did  not  sufficiently  distinguish  the 

new  spirit  i lal  contents  developed  by  Hi''  relationship  to 

(.od,  from  the  Subjective  form  Of  then  appropriation 
by   the   soul.      Such    an    idea    of    (.od    to    (lie    modern 


572  CHRISTIANITY    AND   THE   PRESENT 

mode  of  thinking  appears  too  much  as  a  mere  idealisa- 
tion of  man,  and  the  religious  life  too  much  as  an  inter- 
course of  person  with  person,  and  consequently  as 
too  emotional  and  anthropomorphic.  Pantheism,  on 
the  contrary,  has  insisted  upon  conceptions  of  the 
universe  and  has  opposed  energetically  the  religious 
tendency  of  dwelling  on  the  sickness  of  the  soul,  and 
on  account  of  this  has  gained  a  good  deal  of  sympathy 
in  modern  times,  but  we  can  no  more  go  back  to  it, 
notwithstanding  the  warmth  of  its  definite  ideas,  than 
to  the  Ptolemaic  conception  of  the  universe. 

But  we  hear  it  asked,  does  not  a  danger  arise  to 
religion  through  such  a  conception  of  Pantheism  ? 
Is  there  not  a  certain  affirmation  and  strengthening  of 
man  essential  for  religion,  and  does  not  there  belong  to 
religion  a  certain  anthropomorphism  ?  In  any  case,  the 
view  of  God  as  well  as  of  religion  has  become  more 
shadow-like,  the  more  it  has  attempted  to  drive  every- 
thing human  out  of  religion.  We  step  thus  into  the 
dilemma  :  that  the  human  is  too  small  for  us,  and  that 
with  the  renunciation  of  the  human,  religion  threatens 
to  break  in  pieces. 

Such  a  dilemma  is  to  be  escaped  from  only  through 
an  inner  analysis  of  the  human — through  a  sharp 
differentiation  of  the  spiritual  contents  from  the  sub- 
jective inclinations.  The  whole  of  our  investigation 
has  been  directed  towards  demonstrating  that  such  an 
analysis  is  not  only  possible  but  even  necessary,  and 
that  without  it  there  is  neither  religion  nor,  speaking 
generally,  truth.  Our  investigation  sought  also  to 
show  that  not  only  did  particular  contents  develop 
side  by  side,  but  also  that  they  connected  themselves 
together  into  a  AY  hole  of  an  entity  and  produced  an 


THE    ETERNAL   IN   CHRISTIANITY  573 

essentially  new  being,  which  we  aspired  after  by 
means  of  our  "  ever-becoming  "  personality.  Here- 
with the  man  gains  a  cosmic  nature  within  his  own 
province,  so  that  he  is  now  able  in  religion  and  every- 
where else  to  take  up  a  struggle  against  the  petty- 
human  ;  he  is  now  able  to  bring  about,  if  not  with 
ease,  yet  with  great  effort,  a  fundamental  analysis  of 
his  own  nature.  The  problem  remains  no  longer  for 
him  in  the  relationship  of  himself  with  the  external 
world,  but  lies  within  the  domain  of  his  own  soul. 

Difficult  tasks  arise  along  with  all  this.     As  modern 
investigation    transforms   the   immediate   picture   of 
nature  into  a  mere  phenomenon  which  appeared  to  an 
older  mode  of  thought  as  the  reality  itself,  and  as  it 
passes  from  the  phenomenon  to  the  meaning  of  this 
phenomenon  in  consciousness,  we,  too,  have  to  pass 
from  the  surface-possession  of  human  existence  and 
have  to  work  out  the  spiritual  substance  which  lies  be- 
neath this.     The  supposed  facts  then  transform  them- 
selves into  tasks, but  within  the  tasks  themselves  lads 
are  imbedded  which  promise  to  bring    us  nearer  to 
truth.      It  is  from  such   a  source  as   this  that  religion 
can  hold  man  last  to  his  spiritual  nature,  and  struggle 
vigorously    against    anthropomorphism.      Thus    all 
objects  and  qualities  have  to  be  changed  within  con- 
sciousness ;  conceptions  such  as  personality,  morality, 
etc.,  have  to  be  carried  beyond  their  uearesl  :it  hand 
human  meaning,  and  all  merely  subjective   inward 
uess  has  to  give  way  to  an  essential  inwardness;  in 
fact,  there  is  now  everywhere  a  remodelling  of  all  into 
the  great,  the   Cully  active,  and    the  cosmic.     Con 
sequently,   much    thai    appeared    previously   as   the 

reality    itself  is    now    reduced    to   a    mere  linger  post  ; 


574  CHRISTIANITY    AND  THE   PRESENT 

but  what  we  thus  lose  as  a  surface-possession  is  more 
than  compensated    for   in   the   gain   of  a   depth   in 
our  nature.     Indeed,  the  more  we  fortify  ourselves 
through  such  a  spiritual  substance  and  feel  that  the 
kernel  of  our  life  lies  beyond  the  petty-human,  the 
more  truly  are  we  able  to  employ  and    value   such 
metaphors  and  symbols  of  the  Divine.     For  then  we 
know   that   they   are    indispensable    means   for   the 
furtherance  of  the  soul,  and  at  the  same  time  we  find 
in  them  not  the  reality  itself,  but  a  parable  of  reality. 
If  we  consider   how  much   is  involved  in  such  a 
change  in  the  position  of  the  Spiritual  Life,  and  if 
we  as  well  present  before  ourselves  what  transforma- 
tions,   culture,    history,    and    natural    science   carry 
within  themselves,  we  see  clearly  the  critical  situation 
in  which  religion  is   placed,    because   these   surface- 
changes  are  not  of  the  essence  of  religion.     Through 
the    mighty    expansion    and    fissures    which    these 
changes  bring  about,  the  old  immediacy  and  intimacy 
of  the  soul  have  become  lost,  and  religion  has  now 
receded  into  the  distance,  and  is  in  danger  of  vanish- 
ing more  and  more.     The  disarrangement  of  things 
which  such   changes    cause  occurs   not  only  in  con- 
nection with  their  own  facts  and  material  and  against 
their  old  forms,  but  the  effect  proceeds  into  the  very 
character  and  feelings  of  man  and  into  his  religion. 
And  yet,  when   we  examine  the   matter   closer,  we 
find  that  such  changes  cause  not  so  much  a  breach 
with    Christianity  as  with  its    traditional    form,  and 
that  they  aspire  to  bring  about  a  fundamental  renewal 
of  Christianity.     For  when  we  penetrate  beyond  the 
motives  and    dispositions   of  men   to   their  spiritual 
basis,    all    the    changes    cannot    contradict    what   is 


THE   ETERNAL   IN   CHRISTIANITY  :.; :, 

essential  to  Christianity,  but  tliey  even  promise  to 
assist  this  essential  element  in  its  new,  freer,  and 
more  energetic  development.  But  we  have  to  bear 
in  mind  that  all  this  will  not  descend  upon  us  like 
a  shower  of  rain,  but  will  have  to  be  brought  forth 
through  immense  labour  and  toil.  It  becomes  neces- 
sary to  replace  that  which  must  pass  away,  and  to 
reconsolidate  the  essentials  which  are  threatened. 
All  this  cannot  come  about  save  through  an  energetic 
concentration  and  deepening  of  the  Spiritual  Life, 
save  through  a  struggle  against  the  superficiality  of 
time  regardless  of  all  consequences,  and  save  through 
a  \  i\  ilication  and  integration  of  all  that  points  in  the 
right  direction.  We  now  turn  to  the  elucidation  of 
this. 


PART  V.— CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  PRESENT 

(Continued) 

CHAPTER  XVI 

b.  The  Transient  in  Christianity  and  the 
Necessity  of  a  Renewal  of  Christianity 

1.   The  Removed  from  Past  Forms 

We  were  not  able  to  plead  for  the  substance  of 
Christianity,  without,  at  the  same  time,  emphasising 
strongly  the  temporal  character  of  the  traditional 
existential-form.  This  existential-form  took  shape 
under  the  influence  of  a  highly  characteristic  epoch, 
and  since  that  epoch  fundamental  transformations  have 
taken  place  in  human  life  and  activity.  The  fourth 
and  the  fifth  centuries,  in  which  the  conclusions  of 
the  existential-form  of  Christianity  were  formulated, 
were  in  the  whole  of  their  nature  times  of  spiritual 
stagnation ;  they  could  further  Christianity  only 
through  the  aid  of  the  very  antiquity  with  which 
primitive  Christianity  had  had  to  wrestle.  Thus,  the 
doctrines  and  worship  of  Christianity  during  the 
earlier  centuries  developed  under  the  strongest  in- 
fluence of  Greek  thought,  and  its  organisation  was 
largely  influenced  by  the  Roman  spirit.  At  a  later 
period  came  the  transmission  of  Christianity  amongst 
a  people  imbued  for  the  first  time  with  aspirations ; 

576 


THE   TRANSIENT   IN   CHRISTIANITY  577 

then  followed  the  mistakes  and  finally  the  decay  of 
the  ideals  of  these  peoples ;  and  later  the  rise  of  a 
new  civilisation  and  culture  brought  forth  a  new 
standpoint  of  viewing  the  world  as  well  as  a  new 
kind  of  life,  and  all  this  could  not  proceed  on  its 
course  without  bringing  about  changes  in  the  whole 
situation  of  man  as  well  as  in  the  whole  of  Chris- 
tianity— without  revaluing  old  values  and  engender- 
ing new  demands  out  of  new  situations.  We  have 
already  protested  sufficiently  against  subjugating 
religion  to  the  ordinary  changes  of  history  as  well 
as  abandoning  it  to  the  limits  of  the  elements  of 
time.  But  where  transformations  in  the  world  of 
thought  reach  back  into  the  whole  of  life,  and  where 
these  transformations  find  the  soul  something  other 
than  it  was  supposed  to  be,  and  where  they  are 
called  to  bring  forth  a  different  view  of  man  and  the 
world,  then  religion  is  not  able  to  withdraw  from 
such  transformations  without  injury  and  without 
even  the  danger  of  being  supplanted  at  the  very 
core  of  life.  Such  transformations  in  reality  resulted 
against  the  conclusions  of  the  fourth  and   tin-   fifth 

centuries.  Thus,  religion  had  to  speak  in  a  new  way 
to  a  new  man.  for  it  dare  not  ever  deal  with  this  New 
in  a  concealed  manner  and  offer  portions  of  it  ;is  a 
mere  embroidery  of  life  bul  it  has  always  to  pro- 
nounce openly  concerning  this  New  and  take  its 
stand  independently  upon  it.  if  the  religious  life  in  its 
totality  is  not  to  suffer  in  energy  and  veracity. 

The  greatness  of  the  change,  and  the  necessity  of  a 

remodelling  become  most  obvious  if  we  compare  the 
configuration  of  the  religious  world  of  though!  at 
the   spiritual  height   of  ancienl    Christianity     as  for 

:J7 


578  CHRISTIANITY    AND   THE    PRESENT 

example  in  Augustine—  with  the  configuration  which 
is  demanded  after  the  experiences  of  the  millenniums. 
By  these  experiences  we  do  not  mean  the  fleeting 
fancies  of  many  of  our  contemporaries,  which  have 
little  enough  to  recommend  them,  but  we  mean  the 
experiences  which  have  issued  through  the  most 
important  and  universal  results  of  the  Spiritual  Life 
through  the  centuries ;  and  this  inheritance  no  one, 
in  the  long  run,  can  deny.  Augustine  in  three  main 
points  holds  out  before  us  a  characteristic  configura- 
tion of  religion.  The  manifestation  of  the  Divine  in 
his  writings  stands  in  direct  opposition  to  the  develop- 
ment of  human  energy,  and  this  doctrine  conceived  of 
and  revered  the  Divine  all  the  more,  the  deeper  it 
lowered  human  nature  and  the  more  it  divested  man 
of  all  independence.  And  further,  according  to  this 
view,  religion  seemed  to  be  real  and  true  only  in  so 
far  as  it  gained  a  visible  embodiment ;  thus  the 
kingdom  of  God  had  its  embodiment  in  the  Church  ; 
all  activity  of  a  religious  nature  had  its  embodiment 
in  tangible  achievements  which  were  in  no  way  a 
mere  semblance  but  were  essential  parts  of  the 
reality.  Finally,  the  whole  of  culture  was  placed  in 
the  immediate  service  of  religion  and  its  doctrines  ; 
all  scientific,  artistic,  and  political  activities  were 
admissible  and  of  value  only  in  so  far  as  they  dis- 
charged themselves  into  religion  and  corroborated 
its  truth.  And  thus  was  obtained  a  thoroughly 
religious,  but  not  a  universal,  system  of  life. 

The  relation  of  the  spiritual  to  the  sensuous  is 
investigated  from  these  three  points  of  view,  and 
this  relation  shows  how  deeply  the  claims  of  the 
heightened  self-activity  of  the  Spiritual  Life  affects 


THE   TRANSIENT   IN   CHRISTIANITY  579 

the  configuration  of  religion.  But  we  have  to  bear 
in  mind  that  the  sharp  conflict  between  an  older 
and  a  newer  mode  of  thinking  allows  no  com- 
promise, but  imperatively  demands  a  decision. 
These  two  tendencies  of  thought  contradict  one 
another ;  the  inseparable  blending  of  the  sensuous 
with  the  spiritual  signifies  to  the  old  tendency  an 
unconditional  necessity  in  order  to  reach  the  entire 
reality  of  the  spiritual ;  but  the  newer  tendency 
considers  this  as  a  drawing  of  the  spiritual  down  to 
a  lower  level.  The  newer  tendency  must  desire  to 
drive  the  sensuous  out  of  the  centre  of  life,  whilst 
the  older  tendency  feels  itself  obliged  here  to  assert 
and  to  consolidate  the  sensuous.  What  is  to  one  a 
rock  of  offence  is  to  the  other  a  necessary  demand. 

Further,  in  connection  with  the  relationship  of  the 
Divine  and  the  human,  we  are  prohibited  from  hold- 
ing fast  to  the  old  mode.  To  Augustine  belongs  the 
merit  of  having  formulated  with  full  clearness  the 
fundamental  Christian  thought  of  the  nothingness  of 
mere  man.  and  also  of  having  severed  morality  from 
all  mere  nature;  for  with  him  all  greatness  in  man 
was  a  work  of  Divine  grace.  lint  in  dealing  with 
one  side  of  the  question  he  allowed  the  other  side,  in 
accordance  with  the  disposition  of  an  enfeebled  and 

despondent     time,    to    become    stunted      that     is.    the 

side  of  the  restrengthening  of  man  through  his  union 

with    God    and     the    transformation    of    his    life    into 

self-activity  through  the  new  connections.  Grace 
and  freedom,  corresponding  to  thai  conception  of  the 
relationship  of  the  Divine  and  the  human,  appeared 
to  Augustine  as  irreconcilable  opponents ;  a  welling- 
up  of  freedom  out    of  grace  remained   alien  to   his 


580  CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE   PRESENT 

dualistic  mode  of  thinking.  That  Augustine,  on  the 
other  hand,  does  assign  an  aetivity  of  his  own  to  man 
and  that  this  activity  often  seems  even  to  contain 
the  main  decision  of  life  we  are  well  aware  of;  but 
we  are  also  aware  that  all  this  is  in  direct  contra- 
diction to  his  fundamental  tendency,  and  that  it 
is  rather  a  superficial  compromise  to  the  claims  of 
practice  than  a  deepened  conception  of  Christianity. 

This  conception  of  Augustine  was  bound  to  result 
in  giving  religion  a  character  of  passivity,  of  drowsy 
devotion,  and  of  blind  obedience ;  it  engendered  a 
pleasure  and  even  a  passion  to  worship  its  object  on 
account  of  the  security  it  promises ;  it  threatened  to 
take  away  all  backbone  out  of  life  and  to  transform 
it  into  mere  sentimentality,  weakness,  and  dejection. 
Also  the  senile  character  of  Augustine's  time  has  here 
penetrated  deep  into  religion  itself.  At  later  periods 
in  the  history  of  the  western  world  protests  did  not 
fail  to  arise.  Especially  do  we  find  in  the  inaugura- 
tion of  the  Reformation  a  glowing  aspiration  after 
a  manly,  joyous,  and  world-renewing  Christianity. 
But  even  these  new  beginnings  did  not  succeed  in 
coming  to  a  full  development,  and  infinitely  much 
remains  to  be  done  in  the  future  if  world-denial  and 
world-renewal  effects  are  to  find  an  entire  equilibrium 
within  Christianity,  and  if  freedom  and  grace  are  to 
settle  the  dispute  that  exists  between  them,  and  are 
to  bind  themselves  together  for  the  construction  of 
a  new  reality. 

Also,  the  relation  of  religion  to  culture  needs  a  re- 
modelling. Because  all  the  provinces  of  life,  in  the 
view  of  Augustine,  had  simply  to  serve  religion,  all 
that  existed  and  worked  from  its  own  energy  lost  its 


THE   TRANSIENT   IN   CHRISTIANITY  581 

value,  and  the  renunciation  of  all  objective  interests 
to  a  subjective  state  of  the  soul  threatened  to  destrm 
all  culture.     And,  further,  religion  through  its  aspired 
isolation  lost  all   living   content ;  and  when  religion 
degenerated  into  a  highly  abstract  conception,  it  had 
as  an  alternative  only  the  return  to  an  anthropomor- 
phism.    The  Middle  Ages  through  their  Scholasticism 
gave  a  higher  value  to  the  work  of  culture,  because  it 
looked  upon  culture  as  possessing  a  certain  independ- 
ence,   and    assigned   to    religion    only    the   work    of 
guiding   the  totality  of  things.     But    Scholasticism 
did  not  carry  things   to  a   true  settlement — culture 
was    narrowed    and  religion    was  still   largely    under 
the   influence   of  an    alien    mass   of  thought.      The 
Reformation    accomplished    a    severer    severance    in 
favour  of  the  independence  of  religion,  but  even  here 
the  danger  of  making  religion  too  much  of  an  isolated 
province  became  quite  evident ;  religion  thus  tended 
to  lose    its  cosmic   character,  so    that  the  results  ..I' 
knowledge  had  but  little  influence  on  life  and   were 
considered  to  be  of  a  secular  character.     Although 
religion  and  knowledge  have  differenl  starting  points 
and  took  on  opposite  poles  of  the  total  life,  vet  their 
entire  severance   would    mean    the   rending  of    life   in 
an  intolerable  manner. 

Thus,  we  st;m<l  face  to  Pace  with  new  tusks ;  we  are 
obliged  to  do  something  more  than  merely  carry 
further  Hie  pasl  :  we  are  t<>  seek  for  new  and  in- 
dependent beginnings.  A  merely  pietistic  view  <>i 
life  has  become  too  narrow  for  us ;  but.  on  the  other 
hand,  the  superficiality  of  a  culture  devoid  of  religion 
becomes  more  and  more  evident.  Consequently,  an 
understanding  within  the  domain  of  ;i  wider  s)  nthesis 


588         CHRISTIANITY    AND  THE   PRESENT 

has  become  necessary.     We  have  already  seen  how 
the  Spiritual  Life,  in  the  sense  we  conceived  it,  offers 
a  basis  for  such  an  explanation.     But  this  Spiritual 
Life  is  not  a  restful  bond  of  union,  which  man  has 
merely   to   accept ;  it   is  not  the  setting  forth  of  an 
equilibrium  of  life  for  once  and  for  all.     The  point  of 
departure   and   the   drift   of  the   movement   of  the 
Spiritual  Life  are  fundamentally  different  from  this 
old    conception,   and   all    attempts    to   weaken   this 
difference  threaten  to   lower   the  energy  as  well  as 
the   truth  of  life.     The    Spiritual    Life,  if  it  would 
remain  healthy  and  fresh,  must,  founded  though  our 
being   is   in  the  Absolute  Life   and    Eternal  Truth, 
remain  in  constant  movement.     That  the  truth  is  to 
us   simultaneously   a    fact    and    a   task    signifies    an 
essential  divergence  from  the  older  mode  of  thinking. 
Thus,  there   appears  all  along   a  great  opposition 
between  the  traditionally  old  and  the  sought-for  new 
types   of  life.     And   it   is   of  no   avail   to    veil  this 
difference  between  the  old  and  the  new  Christianity, 
or  to  endeavour  to  make  the  old  and  the  new  flow 
together  in  what    can   be   no  more  than  a  seeming 
coalescence.     And  further,  it  is  not  sufficient  merely 
to  allow  the  New  to  assert  itself,  and  merely  to  inter- 
pret the  Old.     He  who  attempts  to  give  equal  rights 
to  both  is  in  danger  of  doing  injustice  to  both  ;  he  is 
in  danger  of  raising  the  claims  of  the  Old  to  become 
crystallised  through  the  centuries  without  any  change 
although  it  has  no  longer  the  same  meaning  for  the 
convictions  of  an  increasing  number  of  minds ;  he  is 
in  danger,  through  the  attempt  to  amalgamate  both, 
to   do   injustice  to  the  New,  whose  development  is 
retarded    through    placing    a    millstone   around    its 


THE   TRANSIENT   IN   CHRISTIANITY  583 

neck,  whilst  it  needs  all  its  energy  in  order  to  re-set 
its  truth,  in  order  to  overcome  the  present-day 
situation  of  painful  unreadiness,  and  in  order  to 
help  in  the  bringing  forth  of  a  new  phase  of  eternal 
truth. 

How  great  and  irreconcilable  the  opposites  are, 
appears  most  clearly  in  the  different  positions  which 
the  Founder  of  historical  Christianity  occupies  in  the 
Old  and  in  the  New.  This  question  we  are  dis- 
cussing is  in  so  far  the  kernel  of  the  whole  matter, 
since  we  here  decide  concerning  the  manner  of  the 
relationship  of  the  human  and  the  Divine,  which  re- 
lationship forms  the  fundamental  truth  of  the  whole 
of  Christianity.  For  nothing  differentiates  Chris- 
tianity so  much  from  other  religions  as  the  fact  that 
in  Christianity  the  union  of  mankind  and  God  is  not 
determined  in  an  external  manner  through  commands 
and  achievements,  but  that  it  results  from  within 
through  the  growth  of  an  entirely  new  and  essential 
life  founded  in  (.od  and  through  the  call  of  man,  in 
the  midst  of  an  antagonistic  world,  to  a  participation 

in  the  perfection  and  blessedness,  in  the  infinity  and 
eternity  of  Absolute  Being.  The  old  conception 
presents  this  union  of  the  natures  of  the  Divine  and 
the  human  in  a  supernatural,  ontologic-metaphysical 
manner.     The  Founder  of  Christianity  is  thus  simul- 

taneously  truly  God  and    truly  man:   only  at   this  one 

life  docs  the  miracle  of  the  entrance  of  the  Divine 
into  the  human  appear  accomplished;  onlj  through 
the  mediation  of  the  Divine  in  this  one  situation  and 
the  relationship  of  man  to  the  situation,  that  ;i  union 
with  God  is  inaugurated  for  the  resl  of  mankind. 
Thus  the  whole  truth  and  certainty  of  this  union  is 


584  CHRISTIANITY   AND   THE    PRESENT 

stated  to  lie  in  the  fact  that  in  the  personality  of 
the  Founder  it  was  not  merely  the  energy  of  the 
Godhead  which  was  efficacious,  but  that  the  Founder 
himself  was  of  a  Divine  Nature — was  himself  God  in 
the  fullest  meaning  of  the  term.  In  this  connection, 
every  attempt  to  weaken  the  Godhead  of  Christ 
meant  a  lessening  of  the  substance  of  religion,  and 
all  similarity  between  Christ  and  God  had  to  give 
way  to  the  strict  identity  of  the  two.  Thus  the 
more  metaphysical  and  also  the  more  identical  with 
God  Christ  became,  the  greater  seemed  his  religion 
to  be  and  the  securer  seemed  the  foundation  of  its 
Divine  truth.  But,  however,  the  entire  union  of  the 
Godhead  and  humanity  in  one  person  has  become  in 
no  way  through  its  dogmatic  proclamation  a  living- 
reality  for  the  religious  life,  but  the  history  of 
Christianity  shows  here  a  strong  dualism.  People 
have  not  so  much  revered  Christ  at  the  same  time 
as  God  and  as  man,  but  rather  they  have  revered 
him  alternately  now  as  God,  now  as  man,  according 
to  the  manner  in  which  the  dogmatic  conception 
brought  forth  the  one  side,  and  the  practico-ethical 
conception  brought  forth  the  other  side.  And  the 
contradiction  is  in  reality  irreconcilable.  The  dog- 
matic conception  views  the  Founder  as  a  man  who 
is  at  the  same  time  God ;  who  as  God  possesses 
absolute  truth  and  who  from  such  a  height  leads  a 
human  existence  ;  who  lays  on  one  side  only  for  a 
time  his  sovereign  rank ;  who  participates  in  the 
cares  and  quests,  the  struggles  and  doubts  which 
constitute  not  only  the  most  difficult  but  also  the 
greatest  conceivable  sufferings  in  human  life.  Even 
to   the    suffering  that  was  preordained  by  a  Divine 


THE   TRANSIENT   IN   CHRISTIANITY  585 


decree  to  bring  forth  the  most  beneficial  results  and, 
indeed,    to    bring   a   change   in   the   destiny    of   the 
world — in   all   this  the  sting  which  makes  suffering 
genuine  is  wanting :  the  seeming  senselessness  of  his 
death,  the  doubts,  whether    all    the   hard    struggles, 
the  bitter  pain  are  not  in  vain — all  these  disappear 
if  the  dogmatic  conception  is  correct.     He  who  had 
no   need   to   overcome    also    such    a  doubt,  had  not 
more  but    less    laid  upon  him  than    is  laid  upon  us 
other  men,  and  such  an  one's  conquest  cannot  bring 
consolation  to  others.     And  when  traditional  Chris- 
tianity   fails   to    discover   any  contradiction   in  that. 
on  the  one   hand,  it   grieves  from   the   depth  of  its 
soul  over  the  human  sufferings  of  this  Personality, 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  reveres  this  Personality  as  a 
God  superior  to  all  human  anxieties  and   needs,  we 
air   reminded,   although   they   arc   separated    by  an 
infinite    interval,    of  the    words   of   Kenophanes    so 
specially    concerned    for    the    unity    and    eternity   of 
the  Divine  Nature;     When  the  Eleatics  questioned 
him    whether    they   should    sacrifice    to    Leucothea 
and  bewail    her.   he   replied,   "  Bewail    her  not   if  you 
consider    her  a    goddess,   sacrifice    not  to   her    if  you 

consider  her  human." 

But  the   new   conception   dare   not    renounce  the 

union  of  the  human  and  the  Divine.  The  reimneia- 
tion  woidd  lie  an  abandonment  not  only  of  religion, 
hut     of    any    and    every    truth.       But     the    new    mode 

dare  not  fasten  the  union  to  any  one  individual 
event  in  history,  and  place  everything  else  in  a  state 
of  dependency  upon  that  one  evenl  ;  bu1  it  lias  much 
more  to  permeate,  connect,  and  elevate  all  events 
,,f  ;i  spiritual    kind  ;   it   lias  to  bring    forth  b  world 


586         CHRISTIANITY   AND  THE   PRESENT 

encompassing  and  continuous  deed  which  can  become 
the  intimate  experience  of  every  individual. 

This  involves  also  a  severe  clash  of  the  new 
view  with  the  traditional  idea  of  mediation,  which 
Christianity  connects  with  the  main  idea  of  redemp- 
tion. According  to  the  traditional  view,  redemp- 
tion does  not  proceed  directly  from  the  Absolute 
Life  and  Being  that  lies  on  the  other  side  of  man's 
own  energy,  but  a  mid-link  is  forged  between  the 
Divine  and  the  human,  and  half  of  it  belongs  to  each 
side  ;  both  sides  are  brought  into  a  definite  connection 
which  could  be  found  in  no  other  way.  The  power 
which  this  idea  has  exercised  over  the  soul  is 
shown  through  its  origin  and  whole  history.  It 
was  late  Greek  antiquity  that  fled  towards  it  and 
clung  to  it.  The  presuppositions  of  the  idea  are 
quite  evident.  Deeply  conscious  of  the  opposites 
of  our  existence,  especially  of  spirit  and  matter, 
man  sought  to  elevate  the  Divine  above  the  sordid 
mechanism  of  the  world,  and  to  conceive  of  it  as 
much  as  possible  on  the  other  side  of  this  world  ; 
and  consequently  the  Divine  appears  incapable  of 
coming  into  direct  contact  with  man.  But  if,  at 
the  same  time,  there  energises  in  man  a  glow- 
ing aspiration  after  an  emancipation  from  the  hard 
exigencies  and  unreason  of  the  world  as  well  as 
after  some  kind  of  participation  in  the  Godhead, 
and  if  simultaneously  the  consciousness  of  his  own 
impotence  is  developed,  what  remains  except  the 
hope  of  intermediate  powers  that  finally  integrate 
themselves  into  one  personality  ?  We  are  able  to 
understand  how  such  a  conception  offered  a  means 
of    support    to    human    frailty,    how    it   seemed    to 


THE   TRANSIENT   IN   CHRISTIANITY  587 

make   the   access    to    the  Divine  easier,  and  how  it 
gave  an  intimacy  to  the  idea  of  redemption.     And 
yet  there  is  imbedded  in  the  doctrine  of  mediation 
a    crass    anthropomorphism    which    religion    cannot 
possibly  endure  for  ever,  and  the  presuppositions  of 
which    must    fall    to    the    ground    as    soon    as    an 
energetic   feeling    of    life    and    a   firmer    faith    have 
bridged  the  deep  cleft  between  the  Divine  and  the 
human    which    ruled    there.     Then    it    is    bound    to 
become  clear  that  the  doctrine  is  not  able  to  bring 
forth    a   gain  on  one   side  without  bringing  forth  a 
great    loss   on    the    other   side.     For   it    injures   the 
direct  relationship  with  the  Divine ;    as   it   removes 
this  relationship  farther   away  from    man,  it    lowers 
the  Divine  love  and  grace  upon  which    in   the  last 
resort  all  depends  ;  as  it  places  the  entire  inclusion 
of  such  love   and    grace   in  one   particular   point,  it 
falls    into    anthropomorphism;    as    it   contracts    the 
union  of  the  human  and   the  Divine  to  one  special 
situation,   it  thus  inevitably  draws  down  the  Divine 
into    the    existence-form    of    man.      The    main    fact. 
however,  is   that,   like   to  all   other  life  and   being,  so 
also    that    of   religion    cannot    have    more    than    one 
centre;    either  Cod    or    Christ  stands   in   the  centre. 

and  the  one  consequently  represses  the  other.  Con- 
cerning tli'-  decision,  there  cannol  he  the  least  doubt  : 
the  fad  is  clear  in  the  soul-struggles  of  the  great 
religions  personalities,  that  in  ;i  decisive  acl  of  the 
soul    the   doctrinal    idea   of  mediation   recedes   into 

the   background,  and    a    direct    relationship    with    Cod 

becomes  a  t'.ici  of  i i nn iei  1  iacy  and  intimacy.  And 
the  idea  of  mediation  glides  easily  into  a  rarthei 
mediation.     Has   not    the   figure   of  Chrisl    receded 


588  CHRISTIANITY    AND   THE   PRESENT 

in  Catholicism,  and  does  not  the  figure  of  Mary 
constitute  the  centre  of  the  religious  emotional 
life? 

Such  a  conviction  does  not  exclude  the  fact  that  a 
man  is  able  to  be  a  great  help  to  men  in  their  upward 
path  towards  God  ;  and  does  not  exclude  the  fact 
that  the  human  personality  who  first  and  foremost 
brought  eternal  truth  to  the  plane  of  time  and 
through  this  inaugurated  a  new  epoch  remains  per- 
manently present  in  the  picture  of  the  spiritual  world, 
and  is  able  permanently  to  exercise  a  mighty  power 
upon  the  soul.  Such  a  personality  as  Jesus  is  not  the 
mere  bearer  of  doctrines  or  of  a  special  frame  of  mind, 
but  is  a  convincing  fact  and  proof  of  the  Divine  Life, 
a  proof  at  which  new  life  can  be  kindled  ever  anew. 
The  fact  is  at  the  same  time  the  source  of  a  move- 
ment which  cannot  be  estimated ;  it  is  from  this 
source  that  a  great  yearning  has  been  implanted 
within  the  human  breast — a  longing  for  a  new  life 
of  love  and  peace,  of  purity  and  simplicity.  Such  a 
life  with  its  incomparable  nature  and  its  mysterious 
depths  does  not  exhaust  itself  through  historical 
effects,  but  humanity  can  from  hence  ever  return 
afresh  to  its  inmost  essence,  and  can  strengthen 
itself  ever  anew  through  the  certainty  of  a  new,  pure 
and  spiritual  world  over  against  the  meaningless 
aspects  of  nature  and  over  against  the  vulgar  mechan- 
ism of  a  culture  merely  human. 

But  all  this  is  far  removed  from  any  idea  of  media- 
tion, and  far  removed  from  the  setting  of  a  human 
personality  in  Divine  power  and  worship.  And  if  we 
have  thus  to  protest  against  the  position  accorded 
to  Jesus  by  the  traditional  form  of  Christianity,  so 


THE   TRANSIENT   IN   CHRISTIANITY  589 

that  we  have  to  part  company  with  a  Christo-centric 

configuration  on  account  of  the  breach  with  the  old 
mode  of  thinking,  yet  we  cling  to  an  essential  con- 
tent and  a  metaphysical  depth  in  the  human  image 
of  Jesus,  and  seek  in  this  the  sole  standard  of  the 
religious  life.  One  had  good  ground  for  doing  this 
so  long  as  Jesus  Christ  was  considered  in  his  humanity 
as  true  God,  as  the  second  person  in  the  Trinity. 
But  where  this  belief  has  been  abandoned,  the  ex- 
clusive linking  of  life  to  Jesus  becomes  an  inadmis- 
sible  contraction  and  diminution  of  religion.  Also, 
the  pathway  to  the  facts  dare  not  become  the  facts 
themselves,  and  dare  not  bring  the  metaphysical  and 
eternal  in  religion  into  obscurity.  The  Christianity 
which  occupies  itself  solely  with  Jesus  and  which  to 
many  to-day  seems  an  exit  from  all  entanglements, 
is  not  yet  a  match  for  the  mighty  problems,  and 
does  not  carry  within  itself  the  energy  to  overcome 
the  world. 

Thus,  we  witness  the  most  pointed  antagonism 
between  the  traditional  and  a  new  aspiring  Christi- 
anity.     AH   along  the  line,   the   two   conceptions    do 

not  appeal- as  a  More  or  a  Less  between  which  some 

kind   of  a    Mean   can    he   found,    but     they   appear    as 

opposites  in  their  main  tendencies.  The  breadth 
which  the  one  desires  is  held  by  the  Other  to  be- 
an evaporation;  the  enns<>lid;iti<»n  upon  which  the 
one  insists  is  held  by  the  oilier  to  be  no  more  than 
a  semblance  and  a  humanisation ;  the  doctrine  of 
mediation  which  signifies  i<>  tin-  one  an  indispens 
able  entrance  to  the  Godhead,  appears  to  the  other 
as  a  diminution  of  the  Divine  and  as  a  weakening  oi 
the  fundamental  process  of  religion. 


590  CHRISTIANITY    AND   THE    PRESENT 

In  the  midst  of  such  antagonism  and  such  an  actual 
cleft,  what  can  now  signify  a  clinging  to  an  appear- 
ance of  unity  ?  The  old  mode  is  right  when  it  com- 
plains that  the  traditional  values  are  buried  under 
new  and  strange  phenomena  and  meanings ;  the  old 
view  fears  an  injury  to  the  substance  of  Christianity 
from  such  a  new  interpretation,  and  calls  up  and 
stands  upon  a  tradition  from  century  to  century  in 
order  to  hold  fast  the  pure  and  true  configuration 
of  Christianity  gained  for  once  and  for  all.  The  new 
mode  desires  clear  divisions  of  the  material  whenever 
it  feels  itself  the  representative  of  truth,  and  when  it 
feels  it  its  duty  to  set  forth  truth  with  the  whole  of 
its  energy.  It  feels  that  it  is  only  through  an  entire 
independence  it  can  overcome  all  the  prior  hesitation 
of  halting  in  front  of  a  problem  ;  it  feels  that  it  is 
able  to  progress  from  a  more  negative  to  a  more 
positive  construction ;  it  feels  that  it  is  able  to  test 
the  experience  of  human  nature,  and  that  through 
a  struggle  with  the  opposites  it  is  able  inwardly  to 
grow.  Thus,  as  things  now  stand,  the  opponents 
consume  their  best  energy  in  reciprocal  disputes ; 
through  the  one  questioning  the  rights  and  wrongs  of 
the  other,  the  subject-matter  itself  is  not  furthered, 
and,  more  than  all,  the  confused  state  of  things 
hinders  veracity,  and  without  such  veracity  the  pre- 
sent crisis  in  religion  cannot  be  overcome. 

This  new  disunion  will  not  be  able  for  any  great 
length  of  time  to  keep  religion  in  the  background. 
Indeed,  this  fact  is  even  now  becoming  visible. 
Religious  questions  occupy  and  govern  more  and 
more  the  minds  of  men  ;  they  kindle  the  passions 
and  call  to  battle.     They  do  this  at  present,  it  is  true, 


THE  TRANSIENT   IN   CHRISTIANITY  591 

more  from  without  and  not  always  in  a  desirable 
manner,  but  an  inward  change  is  visible  and  wide- 
awake. Old  and  seemingly-settled  questions  arise 
anew  and  show  that  all  the  transformations  of  life 
have  not  entirely  broken  their  power.  Such  a  light 
in  the  direction  of  religion  drives  out  with  mighty 
power  that  gloomy  twilight  which  is  the  abode  of 
halmess  and  obscurity,  and  such  a  light  brings  the 
concealed  contradiction  to  a  clear  consciousness  and 
makes  it  intolerable.  It  is  out  of  an  honourable 
adjustment  of  the  Old  and  the  New,  however,  that 
the  effort  after  a  reconstruction  of  Christian  truth 
must  issue — a  reconstruction  of  the  universal  validity 
of  the  Spiritual  Life,  which  already  wells  up  as  a 
mighty  aspiration  in  the  hearts  of  many  who  hunger 
and  thirst  after  truth  and  eternity,  but  whose  deep 
craving  is  no  longer  satisfied  by  the  old  forms.  I  low- 
long  shall  religion  be  considered  a  mere  stepchild 
of  that  which  suppresses  conscience  and  conviction? 
How  long  are  we  to  search  for  eternal  truth  upon  an 
obsolete  road  '.  That  things  are  not  easy  and  comfort- 
able on  the  new  road  is  easily  seen,  and  it  is  to  this 
fact  we  now  pass. 

2.  The  Necessity  of  a  New  Mode  of  Christianity 
When  we  aspire  after  a  new  form  of  Christianity 
and  simultaneously  deem  necessary  a  breach  with 
tradition,  we  are  not  blind  in  any  way  to  the  danger 
and  difficulty  of  the  problem.  The  traditional  form 
has  for  centuries  held  together  a  large  portion  of 
humanity;  it  has  given  life  and  conviction  a  fixed 
direction,  as  well  as  a  foothold  and  confidence  to  an 
innumerable  number  of  souls,  and  it    Ims    \)ww    the 


592  CHRISTIANITY    AND  THE   PRESENT 

means  of  interesting  the  widest  circles  in  spiritual 
tasks.  All  this  is  already  evident  as  something  great 
beyond  measure  when  we  compare  it  with  the  small 
spiritual  activity  brought  forth  by  the  ordinary  life 
of  men  and  with  the  instability  of  the  Spiritual  Life 
within  the  mere-human  circle.  In  reflecting  on  all 
this,  the  breach  with  the  traditional  form  of  religion 
may  appear  as  an  upheaval  of  morality  as  well  as  of 
intellectual  connections.  In  a  word,  this  may  appear 
as  an  endangering  of  all  that  lifted  man  beyond  his 
small  self  and  beyond  mere  nature.  In  reality,  there 
exist  here  grave  dangers,  and  a  great  risk  is  un- 
mistakable. Such  a  breach  is  justified  only  if  it  is 
aspired  after  on  account  of  a  spiritual  necessity  of 
man's  nature,  superior  to  all  human  considerations  and 
reflections.  And  this  will  be  the  case  in  the  province 
of  religion  when  it  is  perceived  that  the  old  form  of 
religion  is  unable  to  solve  our  own  religious  problems, 
and  when  simultaneously  our  own  interest  in  religion 
has  turned  into  an  aspiration  and  effort  after  an  inner 
renewal.  That  this  is  actually  the  case  to-day  has 
been  the  leading  thought  of  the  whole  of  our  in- 
vestigation, and  we  need  here  do  no  more  than  bring 
this  thought  to  its  final  connection  and  conclusion. 

Religion  has  its  nucleus  in  eternal  truths — in  truths 
which,  once  they  are  grasped,  cannot  be  overthrown 
by  any  transformation  of  the  work  of  the  world.  But 
such  truths  want  to  produce  effects  upon  man,  and, 
in  order  to  do  this,  they  must  enter  into  his  sphere, 
and  their  existential-form  must  correspond  to  the 
universal  situation  of  spiritual  evolution.  Within 
this  universal  situation,  as  we  have  already  observed, 
not  only  slight  re- arrangements  but  deep  and  pene- 


THE   TRANSIENT   IN   CHRISTIANITY  598 

trating  transformations  have  already  occurred  against 
the  old  mode  of  Christianity,  and  these  transforma- 
tions are  not  merely  in  contact  with  the  periphery 
but  reach  into  the  very  centre  of  life  itself.  A 
mere  change  of  views  concerning  the  external  would 
stir  only  slightly,  but  something  infinitely  more 
happens  when  simultaneously  the  Life-process  and 
the  whole  mode  of  thinking  transform  themselves, 
when  man  becomes  something  other  than  he  was 
before,  when  his  fundamental  relationship  to  reality 
is  transformed,  and  when  the  whole  domain  of  his 
life  is  reshaped.  For  as  certainly  as  religion  does 
not  stand  merely  by  the  side  but  within  life,  quite  as 
certain  is  it  that  it  relates  itself  to  such  transforma- 
tions. The  thought-world  of  the  old  form  has 
become  far  too  narrow  and  anthropomorphic ;  its 
opposition  to  reason — an  opposition  which  was  for- 
merly considered  to  be  the  doing  of  man  alone  has 
spread  by  to-day  over  the  whole  religious  world,  and 
such  a  conception  has  increased  immeasurably  the 
obscurity  of  reality  and  has  given  rise  to  an  in- 
creased difficulty  in  discovering  what  religion  really 
means.  In  its  earlier  singes,  this  old  thought-world 
presented  a  picture  of  the  greatness  and  goodness 
of  the  All,  and  tlms  religion  appeared  as  the  rela- 
tionship of  man  to   a    nature   incomparably   higher 

than  himself,  bu1  still  a  nature  in  analogy  with  his 
own    nature       Bui     now    the    world    of    nature     h.is 

drawn  man  to  itself;  he  heroines  now  ,-i  mere  drop 

in    the    sc.i     unless   Ik-   recognises   the    dawning    of   a 

new  and  rssmtial  reality  within  liis  spiritual  nature. 
Thus,  what  appeared  as  his  secure  possession  turns 
now  into  a  difficult    problem;  he  now   undertakes  a 


594  CHRISTIANITY    AND   THE    PRESENT 

task — the  task  how  to  penetrate  from  his  ordinary 
surface-situation  to  the  spiritual  depth  of  life.  Con- 
sequently a  religion  of  the  Spiritual  Life  must  stand 
in  bold  relief  from  that  of  mere  man,  for  the  latter 
aspect  of  religion  threatens  more  and  more  to  become 
a  mere  mythology.  Therewith  all  conceptions  of 
Divine  things  become  inadequate ;  much  that  was 
held  hitherto  valid  as  entire  truth  has  now  become  a 
mere  symbol  from  which  it  is  necessary  to  move 
further  and  further.  But,  at  the  same  time,  the 
spiritual  contents  gain  an  independence,  and  exercise 
a  transforming  energy  on  man ;  life  raises  itself  now 
through  religion  from  the  subjective  to  the  substantial, 
and  subsists  more  and  more  upon  a  real  transforma- 
tion of  its  own  being.  All  along  we  stand  here  face 
to  face  with  new  tasks,  and  we  can  never  hope  to 
come  nearer  their  solution  unless  the  altered  situation 
is  fully  acknowledged  and  unless  a  struggle  is  under- 
taken from  such  an  altered  situation. 

The  old  mode  of  religion  withdraws  itself  from 
such  an  acknowledgment  of  the  altered  situation ;  it 
allows  only  some  isolated  elements  to  fall  upon  itself 
— results  which  have  now  become  incontestable.  It 
accepts  now,  for  instance,  the  Copernican  view  of 
the  universe,  but  it  had  to  be  dragged  to  accept  it ; 
it  does  not  posit  itself  willingly  even  now  within 
the  whole  meaning  of  the  conception,  but  stands 
mistrustful  and  on  the  defensive  over  against  it,  so 
that  it  cannot  loyally  adjust  itself  on  the  side  of  the 
Yea  or  the  Nay  of  that  and  other  movements.  Con- 
sequently it  cannot  seize  the  fruit  offered  by  such 
movements  to  religion. 

The  consequence  of  this  leads  to  a  constant  and 


THE   TRANSIENT    IN   CHRISTIANITY  595 

unbearable  frittering  away  of  life.  Culture  more 
and  more  pushes  back  the  old  mode  of  religion,  and 
through  this  enters  into  an  ever-greater  secular  and 
soulless  mode.  Religion  thus  becomes  more  and 
more  of  an  isolated  province,  and  the  channel  between 
it  and  knowledge  widens ;  thus  its  distance  from 
men  becomes  ever  greater  until  the  mental  efforts 
and  ascents  of  humanity  become  indifferent  to  it. 
This  indifference  is  the  greatest  enemy  to  religion, 
and  is  in  reality  more  dangerous  than  all  the  assaults 
of  doubt.  And  yet  this  indifference  cannot  be 
avoided  if  religion  is  severed  from  the  whole  of  life. 
The  indifference,  indeed,  will  strike  its  roots  ever 
deeper  until  religion  once  more  gains  a  fixed  connec- 
tion with  the  whole  of  life. 

The  older  mode  of  religion,  in  the  midst  of  all  these 
hindrances,  exercises  still  a  powerful  effect,  and  in 
so  far  as  positive  achievements  arc  concerned,  it  is 
still  far  ahead  of  the  new  mode.  But  these  effects 
confine  themselves  to  particular  provinces:  the 
totality  of  spiritual  work  and  the  main  current  of 
life  are  no  Longer  dominated  by  the  older  mode;  it  is 
not  so  much  a  universal  as  a  particular  mode  as  -all 
who  call  themselves  Christians"  are  only  too  ap1  to 

let    us     know.       The     fad     lli.il    great    masses  of  the 

people  cling  to  the  older  mode  does  qo1  at  all  prove 
that  they  have  come  to  any  kind  of  conscious  decision 
concerning  the  differences  of  the  old  and  the  New, 
bul  onlj  |>n>\es  thai  they  have  not  as  yel  come  into 
contact  with  the  problems  and  doubts  of  the  age 
that  these  problems  have  not  .-is  yel  entered  into 
their  consciousness.  But  these  problems  and  doubts 
are   the    very  things   which    render   tin-    position    ol 


596  CHRISTIANITY    AND   THE   PRESENT 

religion  insecure.  For  sooner  or  Inter  a  contact 
with  them  is  bound  to  take  place.  The  question 
is,  will  people  then  be  true  to  the  old  customs  and 
practices  ? 

In  fact,  religion  is  able  to  reveal  its  entitled  position 
when  it  holds  the  full  heights  of  the  Spiritual  Life, 
and  through  this  proves  itself  necessary  and  fruit- 
bearing  ;  and  also  when,  in  connection  with  the  move- 
ments of  life,  it  draws  the  "  kinsman  "  within  these 
movements  and  drives  out  the  "  old  enemy."  But  as 
the  old  form  cannot  lend  itself  in  any  great  degree  to 
such  a  task,  it  needs  a  new  existential-form  ;  it  needs 
before  all  else — in  the  very  interest  of  religion  itself — 
to  free  the  Eternal  within  itself  from  its  temporal 
forms,  and  the  spiritual  substance  from  human  notions. 
We  discover  in  the  old  mode  too  much  that  is  languid 
and  alien.  Men  have  become  tired  of  its  form  and 
also  of  its  language,  and  it  does  not  any  longer  issue 
forth  from  a  rapturous  energy  and  youthful  freshness 
of  the  whole  of  our  own  life,  as  it  always  does  when 
the  entire  truth  and  effects  of  religion  are  at  work. 
Now,  as  we  have  to  live  our  own  life  and  carry  our 
own  destiny,  shall  we  reject  the  aid  of  our  indis- 
pensable helper  on  the  road  of  life— religion  ?  There 
are  no  such  things  as  restorations,  in  religion  as  else- 
where, and  the  Spiritual  Life  will  never  return  to  the 
old  forms.  It  thus  behoves  us  to  take  heed  of  what 
is  ahead  of  us  and  to  strive  to  reach  it. 

But,  indispensable  as  the  effort  after  a  new  existential- 
form  is,  yet  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  immense 
difficulty  of  the  task  if  we  do  not  conceive  it  in  a 
wrong  or  petty  manner.  The  first  demand  is,  that  in 
the  transformation  of  the  existential-form  nothing  of 


THE   TRANSIENT   IN   CHRISTIANITY  597 

the  genuine  substance  should  be  lost,  but  that  the  new 
existential-form    should    succeed    in  giving  this  sub- 
stance  purer,    more   energetic,  and    more    universal 
effects.    This  is,  however,  possible  only  if  the  problem 
of  the  adjustment  of  religion  and  culture  is  not  under- 
stood as  in  any  way  desirous  of  a  relaxation  of  religion 
with  knowledge,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  is  not  desirous 
of  an  absolute  adjustment  of  both.     The  solution  will 
come  when  religion  enters  into  the  relationship  as  an 
independent    power   and    with    all    its    independent 
content — when   it  is  not  only  measured  by  culture, 
but  when  it,  in    its   turn,  measures,  judges,  rejects, 
and  selects.     All  this  is  necessary  for  religion  when 
face   to  face  with   modern  culture,  because    modern 
culture    is  not  of  a  simple  and  obvious   nature.      It 
comprises  movements,  experiences,  and  unfoldings  of 
the   Spiritual    Life    from  which    it    cannot   for   ever 
withdraw  itself:  but  such  a  culture  also  carries  within 
itself  temporal  and  human  tendencies  of  a  highly  pro 
blematic  character — tendencies  which  contradict  most 
pointedly  the  dominant  trend  of  religion  and  even  of 
Christianity.      Modern  culture  as  it  expresses  itself  in 
human  formulations     with  its  material  joy  in.  and  its 
ready  affirmations  of,  life,  with  its  repression  and  even 
displacement  of  ethical  greatness,  with  its  abandon 
mrni  of  eternity  to  the  doctrine  of  evolution     is  not 
only  at  variance  with  this  or  that  <'\istenti;il  form  of 
religion  bul  with  each  and  all  religion.   I  [e  who  makes, 
therefore,  such  n  culture  ;i  standard    for   measuring 
religion  has  there  ;iik1  then  decided  against   religion. 
But  for  him  to  whom  religion  has  become  ••'  Berious 
concern  a  struggle  againsl  such  tendencies  of  culture 
has  become   inevitable,  and   he  must   forge   Ins  way 


598  CHRISTIANITY    AND  THE   PRESENT 

with  all  the  energy  at  his  command  to  the  funda- 
mental differentiation  of  the  elements  of  spiritual 
truth  and  of  the  human  errors  found  within  the  whole 
situation  of  culture. 

Hence  all  definite  movements  for  a  renewal  of 
religion  must  be  differentiated  clearly  from  the  move- 
ments which  are  found  within  the  domain  of  culture. 
Unless  this  is  done,  we  may  hold  fast  to  a  kind  of 
religion  which  inevitably  falls  into  great  shallowness. 
In  an  age  of  religious  crisis,  as  we  witness  to-day,  the 
superficial  is  always  the  nearest-at-hand  remedy  and 
the  loudest  in  its  claims ;  it  is  able  to  hide  its  own 
poverty  of  life  under  the  colours  of  freedom  ;  it  has  on 
its  side  the  half-educated  and,  even  more,  the  over- 
educated  to  whom  negations  are  so  pleasing  and 
smugness  is  so  welcome.  This  is  also  true  of  those 
movements  that  attempt  to  shape  religion  in  harmony 
with  what  is  termed  "the  spirit  of  the  age"— shape 
it  in  harmony  with  all  that  bubbles  from  the  playful 
fountains  of  time — and  that  avoid  every  genuine  Nay 
and  look  upon  every  sharp  collision  as  a  disturbance 
of  their  "  life  at  ease."  Even  to-day  any  movement 
be  it  ever  so  perverted  and  hostile  to  genuine  religion 
will  find  so-called  "  liberal-minded  "  people  who  feel 
themselves  the  true  messengers  of  the  times  when 
they  declare  that  their  message  can  be  made  to  fit 
excellently  with  religion  and  even  with  Christianity, 
and  that  it  is  here  alone  the  meaning  of  both  can  be 
found.  It  is  necessary  over  against  such  an  unworthy 
adjustment  of  the  times  to  hold  forth  the  superiority 
and  the  trenchancy  of  the  timeless  truth ;  it  is 
necessary  to  uphold  the  independence  of  religion 
over   against   a   superficiality    of  knowledge    and  to 


THE   TRANSIENT   IN   CHRISTIANITY  599 

exercise  an  energetic  criticism  on  the  claims  of 
culture  from  the  standpoint  of  religion.  Those  who 
are  unable  any  longer  to  cling  to  the  Old  constitute 
two  main  classes.  The  one  class  feels  the  need  for 
no  more  than  a  minimum  of  religion,  whilst  the  other 
class  strives  to  obtain  a  maximum.  The  former 
places  itself  under  the  contents  of  time,  whilst  the 
latter  attempts  to  raise  itself  above  time ;  the  former 
feels  itself  already  in  possession  of  all  essentials. 
whilst  the  latter  sees  itself  as  only  just  entering  on 
an  infinite  quest.  The  sincerity  of  life  and  the 
progress  of  the  religious  movement  can  only  be 
furthered  when  the  two  classes  arc  differentiated 
more  clearly  from  one  another  than  has  hitherto 
been  the  case. 

He  who  conceives  the  religious  problem  in  its 
varied  difficulties  is  unable  to  deny  that  religion  has 
lost  unspeakably  much  through  the  upheaval  of  the 
old  form.  and.  further,  he  sees  the  need  of  making 
good  such  a  loss.  Bu1  such  an  urgent  result  can  come 
about  only  through  a  strengthening  of  the  siihshuur 
of  religion  through  the  energetic  working  out  of 
its  fundamental  characteristics,  and  through  the  un- 
daunted assertion  of  all  that  raises  religion  above  the 
men-  level  of  time  Religion  is  thus  raised  to  the 
metaphysical  and  transcendental  which  frighten  so 
much  the  ordinary  man  of  the  present.  The  con 
traductions  of  human  lit'.- must  !><■  fully  acknowledged 
if  ever  a  true  effort  for  overcoming  them  is  to  !"• 
sei  in  motion.  The  Either  Or  which  runs  through 
t|lr  whole  of  life  must  stand  clearl)  in  front  of 
us.  and  we  must  take  a  decisive  stand  within  the 
situation.      A    thorough  going    clarification    of   the 


600  CHRISTIANITY    AND   THE   PRESENT 

entangled  situation  and  a  severance  of  spirits  accord- 
ing to  their  fundamental  convictions  are  the  first 
requisites  for  the  turn  towards  a  better  state  of 
things.  And  then  comes  the  need  of  building  up 
and  creating,  of  collecting  and  penetrating,  of  select- 
ing and  possessing,  a  new  reality.  But  all  this  is  not 
possible  without  a  deepening  of  the  total  Life-pro- 
cess— without  an  energetic  self-recollection  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  and  a  stepping  beyond  the  situation  of 
the  times.  Our  whole  investigation  rests  upon  the 
conviction  that  the  religious  problem  is  not  to  be 
handled  isolated  from,  but  within,  the  totality  of 
life ;  it  rests  upon  the  fact  of  the  phenomenon  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  and  the  characteristic  way  in  which  it 
is  to  be  conceived ;  it  rests  upon  the  fact  that  this 
Spiritual  Life  binds  itself  into  a  Whole,  and  upon 
the  acknowledgment  of  an  essential  and  independent 
reality  within  it  which  became  the  fixed  standard  and 
great  task  of  religion.  The  necessary  conditions  for 
a  renewal  of  religion  are  solely  the  elevation  and  the 
energetic  development  of  the  Spiritual  Life.  It  is 
in  this  alone  that  a  sufficient  compensation  for  the 
loss  of  the  Old  can  be  found,  and  it  is  here  alone 
that  the  new  mode  can  overcome  the  opposition 
directed  against  it  from  the  side  of  the  old  mode. 

The  old  mode  often  misses  a  sufficiency  of  actuality 
in  the  New ;  the  New  seems  to  the  Old  to  lack 
the  certainty  that  man  in  religion  is  raised  above 
himself  by  means  of  a  superior  power,  and  is  also  led 
to  a  new  life.  This  complaint  is  valid  in  connection 
with  all  attempts  to  found  religion  upon  mere 
psychology,  for  when  this  happens,  it  is  either  the 
intellectual  or  the  affective  side  of  the  nature — either 


THE   TRANSIENT   IN   CHRISTIANITY  601 

ideas  and  concepts,  or  judgments  of  value  and  feelings 
— which  take  the  lead.     Through  any  of  these,  man 
may  be  able  to  revolve  within  his  own  circle,  but  he 
is  never  able  to  come  out  of  his  subjectivity,  and  the 
energy  of  truth  can  never  invest  his  psychic  state  or 
his  partial  and  one-sided  qualities  with  an  absolute 
value.     But  it  is  quite  otherwise  when  the  Spiritual 
Life  in  its  independence  is  acknowledged,  and  when 
it  is  understood  as    the  presence  of  a  new   kind   of 
world.     Through  this  the  total  outlook  of  life  changes 
itself,  so  that  it  is  not  now  necessary  that  man  should 
be  guided  to  this  new  world  by  means  of  some  iso- 
lated portion  of  his  nature.     The  man  now  possesses 
energy  of  a  spiritual  nature  to  be  a  participator  in 
such  a  new  world  ;  his  need  now  is  to  develop  such 
a    cosmic  life  within  his    own  consciousness    and  all 
that   it   includes.     Thus,  the    fundamental    fact  and 
proof  of  all  lies  in  the  totality  of  the  Spiritual  Life 
itself  and  all  remaining  facts  and  proofs  have  to  be 
connected    with   this   one    fundamental     fact.      The 
result  then  is  that   religion  is  raised  above  all  mere 

subjectivity. 

Further,  the  new  mode  complains  of  the  "abstract- 
ness"  found  in  the  indeterminate  concepts  of  the  old 
mode,  and  states  thai  such  an  "  abstractness  "  does  nol 
help  towards   bringing  aboul  an  energetic  effed  of 
religion.     Much  is  lobe  said  in  favour  of  this  com 

plaint    of  the    new    mode,    bul    it    is    not    in    its    favour 

that  it  often  d<»<  :s  not  attempl  to  discover  the  nature 
of  religion    within    the   characteristic    formation    of 
Spiritual  Life.     Ii  is  in  doing  this  thai  the  concrete 
i, ess  of  religion  lies  and  not   in  copious  and  learned 
disquisitions  concerning  doctrines  and  organisations 


602  CHRISTIANITY    AND  THE    PRESENT 

— disquisitions  which  may  concede  that  some  kind  of 
needed  nucleus  lies  beneath  all  this  but  is  imbedded 
in   great  obscurity.     How   is    it,    if   no    more    than 
this  were  needed,  that  Catholicism  with  its  colossal 
machinery  often  fails  to  manifest  with  sufficient  clear- 
ness and  energy  what  is  new  and  world-renovating 
in  Christianity  ?     The  characteristic  and  the  concrete 
in   religion  can   be   brought   forth,  however,  by  the 
New   through  an  exclusive   concentration  upon   the 
spiritual    content ;  and    once   this    Yea    has    become 
the  conviction  of  the   new  mode,  it  can  pronounce 
judgment  on  any  Nay  it  likes.     It  is  characteristic  of 
religion  before  all  else  that  it  constitutes  the  ethical 
formation   of  the    Spiritual    Life,  its   foundation   in 
freedom   and    deed,   its  demand  for   a   new  kind   of 
existence,    and    its    creation    of  a    world  subsisting 
within  itself.     This  signifies  incomparably  more  than 
a   mere   fulfilment   of  moral    rules   within   a   given 
earthly  organisation  ;  it  contains  the  most  unique  and 
decisive   assertions   and   denials ;    it   withstands   the 
alleged    sovereign    claims    of    all    intellectual     and 
aesthetic   formations   of  life ;   it  withstands   the  im- 
mersion  of  our  life  into  an   environing  world   and 
into  a  blind  destiny.     But  notwithstanding  all  such 
characteristics,  ethical   idealism    is   only  the  presup- 
position of  religion  and  not  religion  itself.     A  turn  to 
religion  results  only  through  the  problems  and  con- 
flicts which  originate  from   this  foundation  through 
a  deep  convulsion  of  the  nature  of  man  ;  and  when 
this  has  happened,  the  elevation  and  transformation 
become  religion.     It  is  obvious  that  all  this,  through 
its  reciprocal  relations,  exhibits  an  entirely  new  and 
characteristic  type  of  life,  and  it  is  this  type  with  its 


THE   TRANSIENT   IN   CHRISTIANITY  608 

facts  and  tasks,  its  developments  and  conquests — as 
our  whole  investigation  has  attempted  to  prove — 
which  constitutes  the  genuine  concreteness  of  the 
Spiritual  Life  upon  which  we  take  our  stand. 

It  may  appear  at  the  first  glance  as  though  the  new 
mode  does  not  place  the  problem  of  moral  wrong  so 
exclusively  in  the  foreground  as  the  old  mode  places 
it,  and  this  assertion  appears  to  the  old  mode  as  a 
sign  of  a  laxer  mode  of  thinking.  This  may  be 
true  concerning  a  number  of  the  forms  of  the 
New,  but  it  is  not  true  of  all.  The  New  is  able 
to  acknowledge  in  the  fullest  possible  manner  that 
nothing  reveals  the  depth  of  life  so  much  as  the 
discovery  of  an  ethical  conflict  within  human  nature. 
And  it  is  this  fact  which  gives  the  religious  problem 
a  compelling  power.  Hut  the  acknowledgment  of 
this  inner  conflict  has  to  pass  beneath  the  level  of 
conscious  mental  reflection  and  shallow  delineation, 
because  such  a  procedure  blunts  the  real  facts  and 
glides  easily  into  unveracity.  Thus,  the  conceptions 
of  freedom  and   moral   guilt  must    hi-   viewed    in  a 

wider  sense  than  the  old  mode  has  yet  done.  We 
cannot  agree  with    the  old    mode  that    all  e\il    is  !«>  he 

traced  back  to  the  deeds  of  man  or  that  sin  brought 

death    for   the    first    time   into    our   world.       We    must 

hold  fast  to  freedom,  but  a1  the  same  time  we  must 
,„,i  d.-ny  the  fad  of  the  mighty  power  of  a  dark 
destine.     This  problem  has  to  be  placed  in  the  very 

Cent  of  the   old    mode,    and    it    has    to    be   shown  thai 

the  problem  has  mysterious  depths.  The  problem 
will  thus  be  handled  m  a  more  circumspect,  more 
tender,  and  less  anthropomorphic  manner  than  has 
been   the   case  with   the  pasl    Protestantism  of  the 


604  CHRISTIANITY    AND   THE    PRESENT 

Church  ;  and  notwithstanding  the  change,  the  earnest- 
ness concerning  the  facts  will  preserve  everything 
essential  from  being  lost. 

The  New  then  may  live  convinced  that  nothing  of 
the  energy  and  depth  of  religion  need  be  lost  upon 
its  path.  xVnd  it  will  certainly  realise  that  it  is  only 
at  the  beginning  of  the  road  and  still  far  removed 
from  any  kind  of  terminus.  How  the  course  of 
things  will  shape  themselves  in  the  distant  future  lies 
for  us  enwrapped  in  deep  darkness.  For  manifold 
factors  are  operating  at  the  present  day  which  are 
creating  some  of  the  elements  of  that  distant  future. 
These  factors  are  the  fortunes  and  experiences  of 
humanity,  of  great  personalities,  and  of  the  character- 
istic and  most  important  universal  elements  of  the 
times.  But  we  need  not  trouble  our  hearts  concern- 
ing the  contour  of  that  distant  future.  There  is  in 
the  present  enough  and  to  spare  for  us  to  do.  The 
activism  of  the  present,  taken  in  its  deepest  sense, 
has  work  enough  under  its  very  eyes  to  trace  the 
outlines  of  a  new  ideal  world  in  the  midst  of  a  per- 
verse generation  and  the  midst  of  immense  con- 
fusions. The  great  task  to-day  is  to  carve  out  deeply 
and  clearly  the  main  bearings  of  life — bearings  where 
all  efforts  can  co-operate  and  where  the  deepest  spirit 
of  man  can  find  its  greatest  energy.  Even  if  all  this 
be  only  of  a  preparatory  kind,  preparation  itself  is 
part  of  the  total-work,  and  no  one,  at  bottom,  can 
know  where  the  preliminaries  go  over  into  the  work 
itself. 


PART  V.— CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  PRESENT 

(Continued) 

CHAPTER  XVII 

c  The  Situation  and  Demands  of  the 

Present 

Great  as  the  difficulties  of  a  new  configuration  of 
religion  are,  they  must  not  discourage  us  from  entering 
upon  the  task,  (or  behind  this  task  an  urgent  need  of 
the  times  calls  us  to  the  work — a  need  which  wells  up 
ever  to  the  surface.  We  live  in  an  age  of  richness  and 
movement  an  age  which  no  one  dare  brand  as  paltry, 
and  which,  with  all  its  activities,  capacity  for  work, 
and  its  over-flowing  life,  should  never  be  assimilated 
too  closely  with  the  stagnation  of  waning  antiquity. 
But  it  is  an  age  afflicted  with  an  immense  contra- 
diction. It  is  wonderfully  greal  in  its  mastery  of, 
and  achievements  within,  the  environing  world,  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  if  is  deplorably  poor  and  insecure 
in  regard  to  (lie  problems  of  the  inner  life  and  the 
inner  world.  Such  a  contradiction  cannol  be  toler 
ated  forever.  As  certain  as  it  is  that  il  will  be 
overcome,  quite  as  certain  is  the  fact  thai  religion 
will  one-  more  step  forth  as  the  fact  of  lads,  and 
prepare  for  itsdr  an  appropriate  configuration  of  the 
essential  and  universal  elements  of  life  and  existence, 


606  CHRISTIANITY    AND   THE   PRESENT 

There  is  no  need  for  us  here  to  delineate  the  power 
of  man  over  the  world :  it  is  evident  to  all.  Most 
evident  are  the  gains  over  nature  through  science  and 
technics ;  and  also  the  conditions  of  human  relations 
have  become  incomparably  clearer  and  more  tract- 
able. We  understand  how  to  unravel  the  skein  of 
the  past  and  how  to  weave  a  meaning  out  of  its 
isolated  threads,  and  how  to  differentiate  the  sub- 
jective clothing  of  things  from  their  essential  aspects. 
Further,  we  observe  in  the  corporate  life  of  men  the 
immense  growth  of  the  power  of  administration  and 
organisation,  and  through  all  this  we  are  able  to 
obtain  our  wants  and  needs  in  an  incomparably 
securer  and  easier  way  than  at  any  other  period  in 
the  history  of  our  world.  In  all  this,  man  has  be- 
come more  and  more  the  master  of  things.  But  all 
this  potency  has  a  measured  and  limited  boundary. 
This  potency  is  confined  to  what  the  capacities  of 
man  are  able  to  extract  from  the  external  world,  but 
the  potency  does  not  reach  to  that  which  exists  with- 
in his  own  soul,  and  does  not  lead  to  the  growth  and 
the  blossoming  of  an  inner  world.  And  consequently 
life  in  the  midst  of  all  its  achievements  remains  resting 
upon  the  external,  and  man  has  to  consider  himself 
ever  as  something  of  an  alien  in  the  midst  of  it  all 
if  he  is  ever  to  exercise  real  power  and  to  exhibit  his 
genuine  superiority  over  the  world. 

Whilst  the  effort  and  the  energy  are  so  strongly 
drawn  towards  the  externa],  the  inner  life — the 
heritage  of  long  millenniums — has  become  afflicted 
with  a  grave  anxiety  and  insecurity.  But  this  inner 
life  is  too  deeply  implanted  and  rooted  in  human 
nature  through  the  work  of  the  millenniums  to  be  ever 


THE   DEMANDS   OF  THE   PRESENT  607 

shaken  off  as  an  alien  thing  or  to  be  considered  in 
any  light-hearted  manner.  It  holds  ns  last  and  raises 
its  claims  ;  it  forbids  us  to  find  satisfaction  in  all 
the  things  of  sense  and  time.  But  in  the  midst  of 
all  the  contradictions  the  inner  life  is  unable  to  reach 
by  itself  a  clear  and  energetic  content,  and  it  will 
never  reach  it  by  looking  externally.  We  remain 
therefore  on  the  inward  side  as  poor  in  the  midst  of 
all  the  external  plenty  which  surrounds  us  as  if  we 
were  not  the  possessors  of  it  at  all. 

^Ve  discover  this  poverty  "  in  the  inward  parts" 
in  a  stronger  and  more  painful  manner  if  we  do 
not  wrap  our  inward  exigency  with  historical  tra- 
dition, if  we  do  not  call  upon  antiquity  or  upon 
the  beginnings  of  modern  times  to  come  to  our 
immediate  assistance,  and  if  we  cease  to  look  to 
the  traditional  form  of  religion  for  the  deepening  of 
life  and  for  consolidation.  In  fact,  the  situation  of 
mankind  lias  altered  so  much  through  the  work  and 
experience   of  modern    times   that    the   older   mode  of 

thinking  cannot  possibly  satisfy  our  life  in  its  entirety. 
We  may  fee]  greal  interesl  in  much  thai  is  contained 
iii    Mm'  old  node  and  allow  ourselves    t<>  be  carried 
along  with  it,  but  a  point  arrives  where  ;i  parting  of 
the  ways  takes  place  for  ever.     In  reality,  we  cannol 
approach  certain  aspects  of  the  <H<I  without   simul 
taneously    moving    away    from    other    aspects;    we 
cannol    affirm  certain  aspects  ni  histor}    without    al 
the  same  time  having  to  den}  other  aspects.     There 
fore,  if  we  take  the  whole  of  any  historical  occurrence 
as  our  guide,  there  cannol  be  al  work  more  than  half 
of  our   energy    and    character;   we   shall    thus   turn 
hither  and  thither  in  the  mosl  unsteady  manner;  and 


608  CHRISTIANITY    AND  THE   PRESENT 

amongst  all  the  chaos  of  the  contradictory  impressions 
we  shall  fall  at  last  into  dulness  and  weariness. 

What  remains  ?  The  immediate  present  moment 
remains.  And  if  this  present  moment  possesses  not 
as  yet  a  connected  inner  world,  still  it  possesses  the 
free  spontaneous  feeling  and  the  natural  individuality 
of  the  individual.  But  can  these  become  the  standard 
of  a  new  life  ?  It  is  certain  that  from  this  source 
much  can  become  alive  and  move,  raise  and  turn 
itself,  affirm  and  deny,  devote  itself  energetically  in 
divers  ways  to  vista  beyond  vista  and  task  beyond 
task.  But  notwithstanding  such  a  possession  life  still 
remains  under  the  ban  of  the  accidental  and  the 
superficial ;  it  has  not  yet  possessed  the  genuine 
substance  and  the  durable  truth.  Indeed,  the  farther 
life  travels  on  this  road  without  these  essentials  on 
its  journey,  the  more  it  falls  amongst  strange  situa- 
tions, mistakes,  and  eccentricities.  And  thus  there 
arises  that  shallow  situation  of  which  we  are  all 
aware,  and  which  we  need  only  briefly  refer  to  here. 

The  basing  of  life  upon  subjectivity  and  natural 
individuality  causes  inner  divisions  of  the  human  race ; 
it  causes  a  frittering  away  of  the  life  of  the  soul 
of  the  whole  and  the  soul  of  each  individual.  It  was 
the  main  service  of  traditional  religion  that  it  raised 
up  and  presented  a  total-task  and  total-aim  for 
humanity ;  the  individual  was  introduced  to  the  life 
of  the  fellowship ;  he  received  from  this  source  light 
and  guidance  ;  each  individual  experienced  intimately 
the  fate  of  the  whole,  and  so  could  always  with- 
draw from  the  fleetingness  of  his  own  individual 
conclusions  to  this ;  it  is  in  this  total-life  of  the 
fellowship    that    the    individual    finds   support   and 


THE   DEMANDS   OF  THE   PRESENT  609 

consolation,  motive  and  enhancement,  norm  and 
standard.  And,  further,  men  were  thus  held  closely 
together ;  the  common  task  and  the  daily  burden  of 
each  and  all  was  understood  by  each  and  all ;  they 
laboured  and  suffered  together,  and  they  loved  and 
hated  together.  Here  was  a  source  of  spiritual 
energy  and  ethical  character  which  no  proclamation 
of  mere  doctrine  and  no  appeal  of  mere  emotion 
could  ever  replace. 

It  is  a  loss  which  cannot  be  estimated  when  such 
an  inner  fellowship  and,  along  with  it,  a  life  out  of 
the  Whole  decay.  It  is  a  loss  when  each  individual 
plants  himself  upon  the  particularity  of  his  natural 
individuality,  and  when  an  exaggerated  individualism 
is  developed  without  any  reservation  and  counter- 
poise. If  this  calamity  happens,  all  the  energies 
which  worked  together  in  the  fellowship  now  work 
against  one  another.  The  result  is  an  intellectual 
and  moral  disintegration  ;  men  understand  one  another 
less  and  less,  live  less  and  less  Cor  one  another,  and 
more  and  more  rarely  are  they  to  be  found  shoulder 
to  shoulder.  Can  we  deny  that  mankind  divides 
itself  more  and  more  into  opposites  and  parties, 
and    that    the    colossal    associations    in    the    domains 

of  material  work  oppose   the   independence  of  the 

inner  life  ? 

It    is  a    strange    life   which    issues    out    of  such   .in 

unbounded  development  of  subjectivity   and  natural 

individuality.        Man    in    all    this   is   most    busy    with 

himself,  observes  himself,  mirrors  and  reflects  Ins 
own  states;  he  ruminates  and  broods  more  and 
more  over  himself,  seeks  to  refine  his  small  artistic 
soul  and  to  free  himself  from  all  the  de<  per  concerns 


610  CHRISTIANITY  AND   THE   PRESENT 

of  life  and  existence.  Thus,  life  is  posited  more 
and  more  upon  mere  reflection  and  is  turned  towards 
whims  and  delusions ;  it  loses  all  its  naivete — all 
simple  innocence  and  inner  necessities.  But  here- 
with it  enters  into  a  track  where  mind  and  soul  are 
neither  well  nor  sick,  and  where  artificiality  and 
eccentricity  keep  company  with  prejudice  and 
jealousy. 

The  elevation  of  natural  individuality  to  the  level 
of  a  guide  of  life  has  as  its  result  the  shaping  of  life 
in  a  puny,  piecemeal,  irregular,  and  curious  fashion. 
Paradoxes  and  commonplaces  now  present  themselves 
as  excellences,  but  they  never  lead  to  even  a  medi- 
ocre independence  although  the  man  is  in  urgent 
need  of  greatness  and  independence  in  order  to 
compare  his  life  with  such  trivial  things  and  in  order 
to  be  raised  above  them.  The  individual  has  here  no 
inner  world  beyond  himself,  so  that  he  cannot  measure 
himself  and  cannot  obtain  fulfilment  for  his  life. 
What  remains  for  him  but  to  return  towards  the 
external  world  and  seek  there  a  flimsy  greatness 
by  means  of  a  "  brilliant  career "  and  often  of  an 
overstrain  ? 

Through  the  convergence  of  these  individual  cur- 
rents of  life,  no  life  of  greatness  can  ever  issue  forth. 
A  chaos  of  conflicting  movements,  contrary  hin- 
drances and  weaknesses,  sudden  rising  and  abrupt 
falling,  no  governing  main  drift  which  differentiates 
between  good  and  evil  and  between  the  real  and  the 
apparent,  no  energetic  counter-effect  to  the  petty  and 
the  common  on  the  highways  of  human  life,  and, 
instead  of  an  energetic  spirituality,  a  refining  of  the 
sensuous    right    up   to    a    senile    sensuality — all   this 


THE   DEMANDS   OF  THE   PRESENT  Gil 

takes  place.  All  culture  which  possesses  no  sub- 
stance, notwithstanding  all  its  aspiration  after  reality 
and  notwithstanding  all  the  excitement  of  its  sub- 
jectivity, possesses  no  soul,  and  in  the  whirl  of 
fleeting  appearances  obscures  the  great  Either-Or. 
The  words  of  Pestalozzi  are  even  more  needful  for 
our  day  than  for  his  own:  "Light  and  darkness 
have  always  been  in  our  world,  but  most  of  the 
light  and  darkness  stood  out  in  greater  bold  relic! 
in  days  of  yore — in  the  dark  days  themselves— 
and  were  clearer  and  more  real  to  the  eyes  of  men. 
Darkness  was  then  recognised  by  the  seer  fully  as 
darkness.  But  to-day  the  darkness  has  become  light 
and  the  light  darkness. 

In  such  a  critical  time  as  ours,  which  meets  the 
life  of  humanity  everywhere,  this  truth  of  Pestalozzi 
becomes  particularly  plain  if  we  compare  the  universal 
weakness  of  the  inner  life  with  the  colossal  capacity 
of  a  scientific,  technical,  and  practical  kind.  We  are 
occupying  ourselves  very  diligently  in  a  scientific, 
historical,  and  reflective  way  with  Philosophy, 
but  we  possess  no  Philosophy  of  our  own  no 
philosophical  creativeness  of  an  independent  kind. 
We  occupy  ourselves  incessantly  with  history,  and 
have  carried  the  results  of  technics  to  a  marvellous 
height,  but  we  lack  all  along  the  meaning  of  historj 

as   a    totality,   and    are    not    able    to    cross    Hie    bridge 

from    tli<-  past   to  the  present     Our   literature   sets 

in    motion    individual    sides    of    Hie   soul,    but    it    di 

nut    seize   and    bind    together    man    in    the   totalit) 

of    Ins    being      it     does    not     strike    its    root    into    the 

depth  of  man's   nature.     Our   art   works  diligentl} 

and  aspires  zealously   after   truth,   hut    it  docs   not 


612  CHRISTIANITY    AND   THE    PRESENT 


succeed  in  bringing  the  chaos  of  the  times  to  its  own 
track.  We  deal  more  than  ever  to-day  with  educa- 
tion, but  we  possess  no  united  and  simple  ideal. 
We  trouble  incessantly  for  the  betterment  of  political 
and  social  relations,  but  we  come  to  a  painful  halt 
wherever  the  final  aims  and  the  highest  happiness 
of  man  are  at  stake.  Everywhere  we  witness  the 
absence  of  a  self-reliant  Spiritual  Life  which  would 
be  superior  to  the  wealth  of  the  conflicting  im- 
pressions, and  which  would  carry  the  universal 
situation  of  the  present  into  a  connected  and  simple 
expression.  Our  day  is  also  full  of  inner  problems, 
and  we  have  not  grown  strong  enough  to  attack 
them ;  we  sink  back  ever  anew  into  the  petty- 
human  level  and  fail  to  reach  a  genuine  content 
of  iife — fail  to  reach  consolidation  and  greatness. 

All  this  will  not  be  seen  so  long  as  man  allows 
himself  to  remain  entirely  in  such  a  state  of  impulse 
and  mechanism  and  only  hurries  breathlessly  along 
from  one  small  point  to  another.  But  once  he  steps 
out  of  such  a  situation  and  strikes  out  for  a  new  path 
of  the  Whole,  he  will  certainly  discover  the  nature  of 
the  painful  situation.  He  will  discover  the  situation 
to  be  that  of  incessant  toil  and  work  without  many 
pure  gains,  of  fascinating  achievements  in  isolated 
things  but  of  a  trivial  value  for  the  totality  of  life, 
of  a  highly  complicated  apparatus  of  civilisation  and 
culture  but  of  no  living  soul  in  the  Whole,  of  burning 
impulses  of  the  fleeting  moment  but  of  no  creative- 
ness,  eternal  values,  or  eternal  hopes.  Why  all  this 
labour  and  toil  if  the  whole  thing  has  no  meaning 
but  relapses  at  last  into  nothingness  ? 

But    one   needs    but   grasp    clearly   the    crisis    of 


THE    DEMANDS   OF   THE    PRESENT  618 

such   a  culture  in  order  to  raise   himself  above   all 
anxiety    for   the    future.      The    boundaries   of  such 
negations  and  shallowness  have  been  set :  there  comes 
a  point  where   man  within   his   own    being  and  lite- 
disco  vers   their   destructive   energy,    and    when    this 
happens   the   counter-effect    is   not    far  away.      Man 
now  takes  up  the  struggle  on  behalf  of  his  threatened 
spiritual   existence ;    he  grips    the  inner  connections 
of  his   being   once   again — connections   in  which  his 
deepest  being  has  its  foundation — and  new  energies 
will    flow    from  such  a  source   and    strengthen    him 
towards   producing   a   culture    which    signifies    once 
more  an  independent  inner  world,  and  which  is  able 
to  grant  their  true  valuation  to  all  the  relationships 
of  his  life.      We  really  stand  to-day  on  the  verge  of 
an   aspiration   after   an   essential    culture     a  culture 
of  the  whole  man      after  an   inwardness   which  COrre 
sponds   to    the    most    important    meanings    of   the 
Spiritual  Life.      In  the  midst    of  the   tangle  and    the 
loud  lament  of  the  initial  stages,  the  aspiration  will 
become    stronger    and    stronger;    it    needs    hut    an 
energetic  concentration  of  effort  as  well  .-is  a  definite 
focussing  of  energies  in  order   thai    the  movement 
may   proceed   on    its   upward    course      beyond   the 
realm  of  the  petty  circle   and    into  .1  realm  beyond 
all  earthly   bounds.      The   possibilities  of  life  are   not 

yet  exhausted:  new  avenues  and  tasks  open  oul 
whenever  we  discover  the  courage  of  creativeness 
and  the  right  point  of  attack,  hut  it  is  imperative 
that  we  should  possess  th<'  conviction  and  that  the 
conviction  should  possess  us  that  reality  has  a  depth 
beyond  the  natural  man,  and  that  we  are  able  t«. 
gam  admission  to  such  a  dept n. 


(ill  CHRISTIANITY    AND   THE    PRESENT 

But  a  movement  towards  a  more  essential  and 
soul-stirring  culture — to  a  progressive  superiority  of 
a  total-lite  beyond  all  individual  activities — cannot 
arise  without  bringing  the  problem  of  religion  once 
more  to  the  foreground.  Our  life  is  not  able  to  find 
its  bearings  within  this  deep  or  to  gather  its  treasures 
into  a  Whole  unless  it  realises  how  many  acute 
opposites  it  carries  within  itself.  Life  will  either  be 
torn  in  pieces  by  these  opposites  or  it  must  somehow 
be  raised  above  them  all.  It  is  the  latter  alone  that 
can  bring  about  a  fundamental  transformation  of  our 
first  and  shallow  view  of  the  universe  as  well  as  the 
inauguration  of  a  new  reality.  It  is  this  which 
religion  announces  to  man  and  promises  to  bring  to 
his  soul  in  its  dire  need.  Man  has  emerged  out  of 
the  darkness  of  nature  and  remains  afflicted  with  the 
afflictions  of  nature,  yet  at  the  same  time,  with  his 
appearance  upon  the  earth  the  darkness  begins  to 
illumine,  and  "  nature  kindles  within  him  a  light " 
(Schopenhauer) ;  he  who  is  a  mere  speck  on  the 
face  of  a  boundless  expanse  can  yet  aspire  to  a 
participation  in  the  whole  of  Infinity ;  he  who 
stands  in  the  midst  of  the  flux  of  time  yet  pos- 
sesses an  aspiration  after  infinite  truth ;  he  who 
forms  but  a  mere  piece  of  nature  constructs  at  the 
same  time  a  new  world  within  the  Spiritual  Life 
over  against  it  all ;  he  who  finds  himself  confined 
by  contradictions  of  all  kinds,  and  which  immediate 
existence  in  no  way  can  solve,  yet  struggles  after  a 
further  depth  of  reality  and  after  the  "  narrow  gate  " 
which  opens  into  religion.  Through  and  beyond  all 
the  individual  problems  of  life  and  the  world,  it 
behoves  us  to  raise  the  Spiritual  Life  to  a  level  of 


THE   DEMANDS   OF  THE    PRESENT  615 

full  independence,  to  make  it  simultaneously  supe- 
rior to  man  as  an  individual  and  to  bring  it  back 
into  his  soul.  When  this  happens,  there  happens 
at  the  same  time  a  transformation  of  his  inmost 
being,  and  for  the  first  time  he  becomes  capable  of 
genuine  greatness. 

The  aspiration  after  a  new  culture  carries  thus 
within  itself  in  an  immediate  and  intimate  manner 
the  aspiration  after  a  rejuvenation  of  religion.  Re- 
ligion and  culture  will  thus  instruct  one  another. 
Without  religion  the  inwardness  cannot  become  a 
self-reliant  province  and  cannot  rise  above  the  ex- 
ternal world  ;  without  a  connection  with  the  whole 
of  life  and  also  with  culture,  religion  loses  its  char- 
acteristic spiritual  content  and  threatens  to  sink  into 
a  merely  subjective  disposition.  Consequently  the 
deficiency  or  the  curtailment  of  one  is  nlso  an  injury 
to  the  other. 

These  final  conclusions  strengthen  the  aspiration 
after  a  religion  of  the  Spiritual  Life,  which  has  run 
through    the   whole   of   our    investigation.     Such   a 

religion  is  in  no  way  new,  and  Christ  ianity  has 
proclaimed  it  and  clung  t<>  it  from  the  very  begin- 
ning.    But  it  has  been  so  interweaved  with  traditional 

forms  which  are  now  seen  through  by  so  many  as 
pictorial    ideas   of    epochs    and     times.       Earlier   times 

could    allow    the    essence    ;ni<l     the    form    to    flow    m 

separably   together   without    discovering  any  incon 
gruity   in    this.     But    the    time    for   doing   this   has 
irrevocably   passed   away.     The   human  which  once 
seemed  to  bring  the  Spiritual   and    Divine   so   near 
to   man   has   now   become    a    burden    and   h   hind 
ranee  to  him.     A  keener  analysis,  a  more  independent 


6i6  CHRISTIANITY    AND   THE    PRESENT 

development  of  the  Spiritual  and  Divine,  and  along 
with  this,  the  truth  of  religion,  do  not  sueceed  in 
reaching  their  full  effects  if  religion  is  looked  upon  as 
merely  something  to  protect  individuals,  instead  of 
looking  upon  it  as  that  which  furthers  the  whole  of 
humanity — -as  that  which  is  not  merely  a  succour  in 
times  of  trouble  and  sorrow  but  also  as  that  which 
Sfuarantees  an  enhancement  in  work  and  creativeness. 
The  situation  is  difficult  and  full  of  dangers,  and 
small  in  the  meantime  are  the  number  of  those  who 
grasp  it  in  a  deep  and  free  sense,  and  who  yet  are 
determined  to  penetrate  victoriously  into  it,  so  that 
the  inner  necessities  of  the  Spiritual  Life  may  dawn 
within  the  soul  of  man.  Whatever  new  tasks  and 
difficulties  lie  in  the  lap  of  the  future,  to-day  it 
behoves  us  before  all  else  to  proceed  a  step  upward 
in  that  direction  of  the  summits  and  to  draw  new 
energies  and  depths  of  the  Spiritual  Life  into  the 
domain  of  man,  for  this  kind  of  work  will  prevent 
the  coming  of  an  "  old  age  "  upon  humanity  and  will 
breathe  into  its  soul  the  gift  of  Eternal  Youth. 


INDEX 

OF  NAMES  AND  OF  SUBJECT  MATTERS 


Absolute     and     Historical      Re- 
ligion, 534  ff. 
life:  its  conception,  193,  208. 

Activity  demanded  in  religion, 
1  B3,  562,  580  ff. 

Antithetic  character  of  the 
Spiritual,  especially  of  the 
Religious  Life,  242  ff,  542  ff. 

Art  :  8S  an  overcoming  of  an 
interior  opposition  and  in 
connection  with  religion, 
is:;  ff,  kK)  ff,  505. 

Autonomous  Life  and  Auto- 
nomics. 152,   153,  204,  205. 

Bacon, 

Being,    and    the    formation    of 

Being,  161,  162,  1,22. 
Biological  conception  of  life  :  its 

peculiarity  and   its  danger, 

::,  51,  52. 
Bodily  resurrection  of  Jesus :  no 

object  of  faith,  550,  551. 
Bdhme,  J.,  *98. 
Buddha,  5  !1 

Catholicism  (Roman),  565,  567, 

60 
Changi     and  cri  ei    in  historical 

movemenl  .  85*3 . 
(  haracteri  tic  Religion  :  H    con- 

cepl  Ion,  HO  ff. 
H       d<  tailed      development, 

i  i  'i  ff, 


Characteristic  Religion  :  its  place 
in  education,  468  ff. 
its  relation  to   the    historical 

religions,  41 1  ff. 
its  relation  to  Universal    Re- 
ligion, 41 1  ff. 
Christian  religion,  the  :  as  over 
against  history  and  culture, 
556  ff. 
as   over   against   the   changes 
within    the    Spiritual    Life 
itself,  563  ff. 
effect  of  its  beginnings,  227. 
its  eternal  substance,  539  ff. 
its  maintenance,  as  over  against 
the  changes  in  the  outlook 
on  to  Nature,  547  ff 
its  peculiarity,  7,  539  ff.,  546, 

5  \~. 
its  temporal  form,  576  ff. 
its   union    of  the    Divine    and 

the  human,  206,  5  1  I 
of  its  mediaeval  form,  41 .   !'-'. 

194. 
peculiarity   of   its   older    form, 
20  II'.,  tO,  H, 65,  559,  576  •'■ 
Christian    State,    Christian     Sci- 
ence :     the     right     and     tin- 
wrong  in  these  conceptions, 
I! )..  ff. 
Chilillikeness :     its     connection 

with  religion,  1,51,  I 
(  lunch,  the  :  demands  concern 
ing  its  formation,  1 » > T  ff. 


617 


618 


INDEX 


Church,  the :  its  necessity  and 
its  dangers,  458  ff. 

Cognition  :     its    complications, 
1 00  ff. 
its  conditions,  14S. 

Concreteness  in  religion ;  how 
to  be  understood,  601  ff 

Confucius,  394. 

Conscience  :  its  significance  and 
its  limits,  336  ff. 

Cosmic  Interior  Life :  as  pre- 
supposition of  all  striving 
after  inferiority,  165  ff. 

Creativeness  (spiritual) :  its  char- 
acter and  its  conditions, 
146  ff 

Culture   and    Civilisation :    their 
character  and  their  relation 
to  religion,  58,  68  ff,    142, 
560  ff. 
in  contrast  to  morals,  318. 
in  contrast  to  religion,  296  ff. 


Dead,  judgment  of  the  :  motive 
of  this  conception,  334. 

Determinism :  its  presupposi- 
tions and  its  insufficiency, 
172  ff,  223  ff,  265  ff. 

Development,    doctrine    of,  and 
idea    of    Evolution :     their 
limits,  109,  116  ff. 
their  relation  to  religion,  27, 
29,  554  ff,  569- 

Diabolical,  the,  in  human  nature, 
324. 

Dialectic,  the,  of  religion,  425  ff, 
436,  542. 
of  universal  religion,  357. 

Disposition  and  power:  their 
alienation,  316  ff. 

Divine,  the,  and  the  human : 
their  inter-relation,  222  fl., 

579  ff 
complication    of     this     inter- 
relation within  the  histori- 
cal religions,  380  ff. 


Doubt :  its  power,  its  right  and 
its  wrong,  9,  233,  519  ff 

Drama,  the,  as  an  image  of 
human  life,  288,  51 6. 

Eckhart,  Meister,  188,  190,  207. 

Emancipation  of  the  Spiritual 
Life  from  man,  36,  569  tf- 

Enemies,  love  of  our  (as  indica- 
tion of  a  new  worid-order), 
392  ff. 

Eternal,  the,  and  the  temporal : 
their  mutual  relations  with- 
in religion,  193. 

Eternity,  the   longing  for,  270, 
446. 
as   presupposition    of  history, 
176. 

Ethical  Idealism :  its  character 
and  its  superiority,  173, 
602. 

Evil :    its    reality  recognised  by 
religion,  14,  499- 
its  treatment  in  religion,  502  ff. 

Existence,  Existential  Form  (in 
contradistinction  to  sub- 
stance), 182  ff,  514  ff. 

Existences  (in  contradistinction 
to  Natures),  184. 

Experience  (distinguished  from 
merely  empirical  know- 
ledge), 137. 

Faith  and  doubt,  518  ff. 

its  necessary  conception,  232, 
237  ff,  518  ff 
Fatalism,  324. 
Fate  and  guilt,  324,  340  ff. 

of  the  work,  144. 
Feeling :  its  significance  for  the 
psychic      starting-point     of 
religion,  226. 
its  insufficiency  as  a  basis  of 
religion,  67,  78. 
Fichte,  34,  271. 
Following  of  Christ.  553. 


INDEX 


619 


Formal  reason  :  its  quarrel  with 

material  reason,  212,  293. 
Freedom  and  depth,  .'3 1 9. 

and  Equality  :    their    connec- 
tion   with    religion,  263  ff., 
4  H  ff. 
and  grace,  205  ft'.,  223  ff. 

God,   the  idea  of,    181,  208   ff., 

371  ff,  129  ff 
its    twofold    interpretation    in 

ecclesiastical      Christianity, 

210  ff. 
Godhead  and  God,  fc29  ff. 
Goethe,  54,   133,   1  1<>.   l  5 1 ,  215, 

337,  3  1  I, 
Good,  the,  and  the  useful,  1  2  t  ff. 
Greatness,  the  longing  for:   its 

connection    with     religion, 

278,  290  ff.,  117. 
Greek  manner  of  thinking  and 

view  of  life,  101,  10 

26:;,  559. 
Guilt,  500,  527,  6 

I  labit  :    limil  i  of  its  efficiency, 

i  85  ff. 

el,  so.  i  i<».  i:  i,  536. 
I  ligher,    t he,    and    i  he    Inner : 

opposite  direction  of  t  be  i  i 

planation  of  them,  502   ff, 

507,  5 

I  li  tory  :  condil ion  i  for  a  hi  itory 

of  B  spirit  u.il  kind.  .">.'>  ff. 

it  >  relation  to  religion,   IS  ff., 

i.;i  ff. 
its  significance  within  religion, 

ff. 
limits   of   its   efficacj    In    the 

domain    <>i     the     Spiritual 

Life,   i  i".  ff,   !;•■ 
of    t  he   soul  :    Introduced    bj 

religion,  i  3  i 

I I  torical    cril icism  :    it  •    origin 

and  effect,  8    H 
religions,  6  ff, .  866  ff, 
I  li  rtori  in  :  refusal  <>f,  567  tl 


Historico-social  culture  and  civil- 
isation :  its  incapacity  to 
produce  the  Spiritual  Life, 
50,  68  ff,   I  1  J,  560  tl. 

is  interpretable  in  two  differ- 
ent ways,  318. 

its  opposition  to  religion, 296  ff. 

Idealism  and  Realism  :  they  can 
be  conjoined,  1  78  ff. 

Idealist  Culture  and  Realistic 
Culture  and  Civilisation  in 
modern  times,   l:i  ff. 

Ideals  :     their    peculiar    action, 
200  ff. 
their  constant  change,  300  ff. 

Imagination  :  its  operation  with- 
in religion,  8,  867,  ';||S. 
i M.  567. 

Immanent  Idealism  :  refusal  of, 
532. 

Immortality, 216,  272,291  if..  I 

Impersonal  character  of  the  pro 

■  i    B  "t    civilisation   and   cul- 
ture iii  modern  times,  86. 

Indian  religions,  II  H,  5  I  I . 

Indirect  proof  furnished  bj  unl 
\  ersal  history .   558 

I  ndividual,  t  he  i  as  interlaced 
with  t  he  en>  ironment  ,838ff. 

in  relation  to  BOCiet]  .  300  ff. 

t reated  l>\  fate  as  1 1 gh  In 

different,  847  ff 

Infinite    Love,    I  I  I    If 

Infinity  :     the     longing     after, 

61  if.  1 1  • 

Interim-it  \   :     diseriuiin.it  mu     !>e 

t  nreen  ■  ubjectii  e  and    sub 

mi ial    Interioril  \ .    67  (F., 

150  H  .    11 1.    i  56,    i  ••'.   HO, 

tren  thened      l>\       religion, 
il. 
[ntelled  nail  m  :   condil  lorn     for 
rooming  i' .  I  s  i  ff 

it      in    ufficil  ii' 

Intolerance, the    "t  n  ligion 


620 


INDEX 


Jesus:     His    personality,   16   ff., 
360,  521,  588. 
His  position  within  the  Christ- 
ian faith,  16  ff.,  583  ff. 

Judaism,  367. 

Justice  and  love,  395  If. 

Kant,  34,  200,  275,  423,  426, 
517. 

Leibniz,  l6l,  275. 

Lessing,  378. 

Life,  types  of:  their  difference 
and  their  onesidedness,  171 
ff.,  307  ff. 

Life-work,  138  ff. 

Love  and  justice,  395  ff. 

its  nature  and  its  presup- 
positions, 148  ff,  395  ff, 
505. 

Luther,  151,  222,  407,  437,  442, 
492,  516. 

Magical,  the,  in  religion  com- 
bated, 565  ff. 

Man  :  his  smallness  and  his 
greatness,  169  ff 

Matter  of  fact,  in  religion  :  how 
to  be  understood,  600  ff. 

Mediation,  the  idea  of:  its  pre- 
suppositions, 583  ff. 
its  dangers,  585. 

Metaphysic  indispensable  for  re- 
ligion, 68. 

Metaphysical  life  :  the  thirst 
after  (distinguished  from 
the  thirst  after  physical 
life),  402. 

Miracles  (in  the  false  and  in  the 
right  sense),  25  ff,  205,  223, 
282,  521  ff,  549  ff 

Modern  culture  and  civilisation  : 
discrimination  between  its 
spiritual  substance  and  its 
merely  human  tendency, 
593  ff. 


Mohammed,  398,  521. 
Morality   and    civic    worthiness, 
108. 

and  religion,  223. 

is  no   diminution    of  energy, 
128  ff. 

its    interior    growth    and    de- 
velopment, 405  ff. 

its  nature  and  action,  128  ff. 

its  power,  130. 

its      seeming       impossibility, 
103  ff. 

its  weakness  in  human  life,  95, 
320  ff. 

no  natural  quality  of  man, 
170  ff.,  240  ff. 
Movement  and  rest:  influence 
of  religion  upon  the  con- 
stitution of  their  inter- 
relations, 507  ff. 
Mysticism :  its  right  and  its 
wrong,  74,  213  ff. 

Natural  Science :  its  relation- 
ship to  religion,  24  ff, 
547  ff 

Nature  and    spirit   as  grades  of 
reality,  86,  164,  167. 
opposed  to  religion,  290  ff. 

Negative  element  of  all  the 
work  of  life,  93,  94. 

Noeticism  opposed  to  intel- 
lectualism  and  voluntarism, 
235. 

Noological  method  differentiated 
from  the  psychological,  178 
ff,  455,  456. 
differentiated     from     specula- 
tive metaphysic,  1 80. 

Object  and  objectivity :  their 
true  meaning,  90  ff. 

Objectivist  and  subjectivist 
modes  of  life :  their  con- 
flict, 313  ff. 

Optimism  :  its  insufficiency, 
349  ff- 


INDEX 


(J21 


Optimism  :  its  contrast  with 
religion,  .524-,  526,  529- 

Organisation  of  the  work  of 
culture  :  demands  concern- 
ing it,  185  ft'. 

Original  sin,  a  mistaken  con- 
ception, 222. 

Pantheism  :  its  development   in 

modern  times,  43  ff. 
its  mistaken  interpretation  of 

the  process  of  life,  1 68. 
the  right  and  the  wrong   of, 

217  ft 
Paracelsus,  204. 
Parseeism,  366. 
Pascal,  337,  352,  409- 
Passive     kind,    the,    of    religion 

combated,   482,   484,    56l, 

579. 
Paul,  2  Hi.  224. 
Personal :     distinguished 

subjective.   1  5  I  .    I  52. 

Personality,  150  ff. 
of  God,  21  :.  i  -.'it  ff. 
of  the    founders   of    the 
Ligions,  7,  367  ff.,    180  ff. 
P<   simism  :   as  opponent   <>f  re- 
ligion,  5  56  ff.,  5  .'!>  ff. 
its      interior       contradiction, 

.  ff. 

P<    l.ilozzi.  '    til  I. 

Pietism,  refu  a]  of 

Pindar,  34  t. 

Plal  393,  I7s. 

Plotinus,  i 

Positivism :  rejection  of  its  at  tack 

upon  religion 

haracteri  tic    of    piri- 

tii.il,  156  ff 
Priei  I  hood,   Iti    danger     for   re 

ligion,  I'ii  ff 
Privatii  e  concept  ion  ol  B\  11 ;  it 

right  and  ii    «  ronj 
Proof,  t he  kind  ui,  | ii i  .iiili    for 

religion  considi  r<  d,  7  '  ff. 
Providence,  belief  In,  825  il 


ii'inii 


re- 


Rationalism  :    position   taken   up 

towards  it,  185  ft. 
Reformation,  the.  23,  581. 
Religion:  and  cosmic  contempla 

tion,  us  ff.,  506  ff.,  513  ff. 
and    culture   and    civilisation, 

59  7  ft. 
and  speculation,  255,  256. 
its  affirmative  character.  249, 

250. 
its    discriminating    and   inteir- 

rating      action.      235, 

471   ff. 
its  kernel,  187  ft..  249  ff. 
its  method   of   proof,    193    ff, 

1,53  ft.  526  ft. 
its      psychic      starting-point, 

226  ff. 
reasons    for    men's     different 

attitude-    towards    it. 

243    ft.,     t2(i    If.,    523    ff., 

530  ff. 
Renaissance,    i  he :    its   ideal   of 

life,  i 

Ri<r|)t,  the    idea    of:    its    spirit  nil 

conditions,  I 
Runeberg,  i"><> 

Sacraments,  553,  565  ff. 

Sacrifice:      how      far      necess.irv  . 

:.  197. 
Savonarola,  ■  ■  i . 

Schelling,  341 
Schopenhauer,  <>  i  f 
Science  and  Trut h,  10 
Self  act  Hat  ion:        dial  inguiahed 

from    mere    act  ivity,     151) 

i 
S<  If  life  of  the  Spirit,  the,  i  i 

plain*  if  141  a. 
Soul,  depth  ot 

|iii\\  ir    ui  I  In  .    !73  ff. 
Soul  .  i  ran  migrat  ion  of, 

treatment    ot   lift 
mi  i  th(     ubj<  d  i\  i  i    "id 

t he  objecth  1st   i ii  Fit  men  1 

i     I  ff. 


628 


INDEX 


Spiritual,  the,  and  the  sensible: 
form    taken  by  their  inter- 
relation   in    modern    times, 
564  ff.,  578. 
Spiritual  culture :    its  contradis- 
tinction   to    merely    human 
culture,  2S9  ff.,  472. 
Life,  the  :  difference  between 
our  conception  of  it,  and 
that    which    obtained    in 
the    classical     period    of 
German  literature,  168. 
its    gradual     independence 
over  against  man,  35  ff, 
563,  569. 
its  position  in  the  universe, 

156  ff. 
its  scatteredness  in   human 
existence,  307  ff. 
Stoicism,  347,  439- 
Substance  :    in   contradistinction 
to     Existence     and     Exist- 
ential form,  182  ff. 
Suffering :    its  effect  upon   man, 
328  ff,  355. 
God :    objections  to  this  con- 
ception, 432  ff. 
Thinking  (logical)  :  its  power  in 
history,  356. 


Truth  :  its  apparent  self-contra- 
diction, 101  ff. 
its    new  formulation,    l6l     ff., 
478,  505. 

Two  chief  directions  in  the 
movement  of  religious  re- 
form, 599. 

Universal   Religion :    its  concep- 
tion, 192. 
its    relation  to    Characteristic 
Religion,  412  ff. 

Utilitarianism  (in  religion)  re- 
jected, 64,  465. 

Voluntarism  (see  Willing) :  a 
mere  reaction  against  In- 
tellectualism,  80  ff,  185. 

Willing,  not  suitable  as  a  founda- 
tion for  religion,  81  ff. 
Winckelmann,  47. 
Work  :  its  greatness,  1 36  ff. 
its  limits,  144. 

world  of,  the  :  its  conception, 
1 35  ff. 

Xenophanes,  585. 


PRINTED    BY    NEILL    AND   CO.,    LTD.,    F.DINMJRGH 


<y 


BL 


DATE  DUE 

APR 

5,1984 

RtCO  APR  2 

i  1984 

!>tP 

;   1991 

WD . 

!AN  0  6  IS 

92 

,                  GAYLORD 

PRINT  ED  IN  U.  S    A 

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